L'Étranger
by Pilar
Summary: A Dawson's Creek/Roswell Crossover Event
1. L'Étranger

_Disclaimer:_ All right, so here's the deal. Everything Dawson's Creek and Roswell is copyright the WB television network and various other people. Infringement is really, really not intended. Storyline is all mine, backstory is theirs, title is from Albert Camus' book of the same name, I think it fits...

_Rating:_ At the moment we're holding down a firm R rating, but this one could steam up. Plus, there's a slash factor coming into play at some point in the near future, so you might as well say NC-17 on the series just to hide it from tender sensibilities.

_Feedback:_ I want it. I need it. Please [send me your validation][1] or I will shrivel up and die a horrible and miserable death. Whaddaya think?

* * *

L'Étranger  
A Dawson's Creek/Roswell Crossover Event  
by Pilar

* * *

"Pacey!!! Could you come downstairs, please?" The sound of Pacey Witter's mother's voice carried through the house, wafting over him as he sat on the edge of his bed, fingers running furiously over the Nintendo gamepad.

"One second, Mom!" He called out, never taking his eyes from the screen. When a moment of breathing space availed itself, he pressed pause and walked down to his mother in the kitchen. He was caught off-guard by the sight of his father, out of uniform for a change, standing behind where Mrs. Witter sat at the kitchen table.

"Hey?" He said inquisitively. "What's up? Is everything all right?" Pacey searched his mind for something that he could have done to warrant his father's presence in the house, without police gear on, on a Saturday afternoon. Nothing came, nothing at all.

"Sit down, Pacey." His father motioned to the chair opposite his wife's as Pacey stared at her. She gave him nothing, zip, zilch; he got nervous. Whatever this was, it was big. Pacey hadn't seen this kind of tension since, well... ever.

"Honey... your father quit his job today." Pacey's mouth hit the floor. What the hell is going on here? Are we living in some kind of alternative universe?

"Pacey, your mother and I have talked this over and I've been offered a job across country, in New Mexico. I've decided to take it. We leave in a week." Just like John Witter to drop a bomb like this without blinking an eye.

The shock refused to register. Pacey felt the blood drain from his face and his mouth collecting dust under the kitchen table. How could they do this without consulting him? How could they simply up and move him just a week into his senior year? His mind swam.

"But... But, Pop... I just started my senior year, I can't move now. I don't want to go..." He knew that his voice had regressed to that of a six-year-old's, but suddenly he felt like one. No decisions of his own, completely at the mercy of his parents. "I'm almost 18, I'll stay here." He tried to sound as if he'd pulled it together, but it still came out as almost a whimper.

"Oh, sweetie... your father and I think that this will be a good move for all of us. And even though you're almost old enough to decide for yourself, we want you with us. Our family needs to stick together right now." There were the beginnings of tears in his mother's eyes as she thought about her oldest son, Doug.

Deputy Doug Witter had been shot in a robbery just a month prior, and everyday had been difficult to get through for the Witter family. He had been called to the scene of a routine robbery on a silent alarm, and when he'd arrived and come through the grocery door, the assailant had turned and in one motion, emptied his gun into Doug's chest. He'd hardly had time to get off a shot himself before he'd fallen to the tiles, dead. This was a small town, he wasn't wearing a vest. John Witter, Chief of Capeside Police, was devastated, he blamed himself.

"We're moving and that's it. Get to packing, kid." Ever the hard-ass, Pacey knew that his father was hurting but would never show it. He would never admit that Doug's death had made his job, his life even, unbearable in Capeside.

Doug had always been his father's favorite. The prodigal son, the one to take over the family legacy and become a cop, just like every other man in the Witter family. Pacey and his father had never been close, but at least over the past few years they had reached a sort of balance in their relationship. It could even be looked at as a mutual respect. They'd gotten through their differences and it had made the dynamic between father and son less tumultuous. At the very least, they treated each other like human beings now.

Pacey stood and left the kitchen fogged in a haze of disbelief.

* * *

"You're kidding me, right? You can't actually be moving to Roswell, that's that alleged UFO crash place in the middle of the desert, right? Jeez, Pacey..." Jennifer Lindley sat next to Pacey on his right, looking surprised and irritated.

Pacey had gathered his friends together to tell then the horrible news all at once. He didn't think that he could explain everything too many times without getting overly emotional.

"Yeah..." He took a deep breath and exhaled it with a long sigh, "I wish this was some cruel prank. I keep hoping that I'll wake up and find out that it's just a nightmare or a practical joke, or something... but, evidently, Roswell lost their Sheriff and my father put in for the job. It's a done deal. I'm gone on Thursday morning, oh-seven-hundred."

The wheels were turning in Dawson Leery's head, obviously trying to come up with some sort of alternative. With Pacey moving clear across the states, Dawson would be left with only the girls around him. They were all very close friends, but Pacey was Dawson's main source of male bonding, they had been friends for as long as either of them could remember. He would still have Jack to keep him company, but he didn't really count, and they had never been all that friendly.

"Pace--How about this? My dad and I have the spare room, you could move in with us for the rest of the year. They've got to go for it. You'd be "supervised", have somewhere to stay, and you'd be able to finish school in Capeside. Mitch would have no problem with it." Dawson's words flew at a mile a minute, as if he had it all sussed out from the start.

Pacey smiled tenderly at his best friend. "Thanks, D. You know that means a lot to me, and I wish that staying behind was an option, I really do. But, with the girls spread out across the country and Doug, well... you know... I'm all they have left. I've got to go with them."

Joey Potter hadn't said a word since Pacey had told them. No glib quips, no obnoxious banter, just thick silence. The look on her face told volumes, though. Another person that she loved was going to leave her. She should have known, they always did.

"I have to go back to work, my lunch break is over in five minutes," she said in monotone, leaving the cafe without looking back.

"She'll be all right, Pacey. You know how she gets." Jen's eyes followed Joey's quick and steady gait towards the marina where she worked, waiting tables at yet another Yacht Club eatery. Pacey looked at his hands folded on the table. Even though he'd gone over this scene over and over since his parents had broken the news, he'd never once realized how difficult it would actually be. He loved his friends; they were everything to him.

* * *

"Hey, Jo..." Pacey stepped out from behind his brother's car, _his car_, and walked towards Joey as she left work. They had not spoken in three days, ever since she had walked away from them at the cafe. Pacey first thought that leaving her alone was the best thing for both of them, they didn't need the added drama in what was already a bizarre relationship. She would come to him when she was ready, he'd thought, but then she hadn't. And time was running out. He was leaving in less than twenty-four hours. The goodbyes had already been said, hugs exchanged, boxes packed and shipped, and no Joey. There was no way in hell that he was going to leave without resolution.

"I figured it out, Jailbait. Your parents finally found out that you're an alien and they're returning you to the rest of your people." She smiled that crooked half-smile of hers and hoisted herself onto the hood of the Jeep.

"Yup, you've got it all sussed, Potter. When I go home, I climb into my pod, shed this tight, human skin, and turn into a little, slimy, green guy." He leaned his elbows on her knees and rested his chin on his hands, looking up at Joey.

"This sucks, Pacey."

"Yeah... I know..."

Scooting up next to her on the hood, they sat quietly for a moment, watching the moon glow across the water and thinking. There relationship was so strange to both of them, filled with subtext and co-dependancy. They leaned on each other when things got rough and helped pick each other up. It would be difficult for both of them to be so far apart. Especially now, when they'd gotten so close.

He looped his arm over her shoulder and pulled her into him.

"Whaddaya say we go get drunk, Potter?"

"Sounds terrific. Your liquor cabinet or mine?" She slid off the hood and hopped into the passenger seat of the Jeep. Pacey joined her behind the wheel and pulled a bottle of Herradura from a paper bag.

"Mine." Tires screeching, they headed off back to Pacey's house, to the clearing at the edge of the backyard where they spent quality time together.

* * *

A couple of hours had passed. Thoroughly tanked, Joey leaned across Pacey for the half-empty bottle of tequila he was hoarding. He snatched it from her hands.

"How're you planning on getting home? You're too drunk to walk," he murmured in a jumble of intoxication.

"I'm not."

He rolled over to face her. "You're not?"

"Nope." She looked at him with intoxicated indignance. "Not goin' home. No drivin', no movin'. Stayin'" She nodded her head sharply, punctuating each work obstinantly. Pacey simply stared at her. What was this girl getting at?

"Jo?"

"Yup?" Flopping onto her back, she stared up through the boughs of the huge oak tree they lay under in the grass. Pacey passed her back the bottle and she put it to her lips, excess tequila that didn't make it into her mouth slid down her jaw. Pacey wiped at it with the side of his thumb. An innocent gesture. One he'd made a half-million times.

"You wanna stay here tonight? You wanna stay at _my_ house? With me; at _my_ house, with me?"

"MmmHmmm..."

"Well, all right, then." _Glad that's settled._ Pacey cocked his head towards her, trying to see into her mind and read what precisely she was saying. There were times when he had thought of her romantically, even times when he'd fallen head over heels in love with her, but they had always remained friends. Only friends. Pacey made no moves beyond the failed kissed sophomore year, and he'd assumed that she wasn't really looking for them. 

Josephine Potter's tortured sexual subtext was reserved for the boy next door, Dawson Leery. Pacey's best friend. Keeping all of this in perspective, Pacey kept his hands, and his heart, to himself. So, again, what the hell was she getting at? Pacey decided it was best to just follow her lead. Nothing really mattered anymore. He was leaving town in seven hours and in a year, they would all be spread around the country, in college, growing up and moving on with their lives.

"I don't wantcha t'go..." Joey slurred, pouting.

"I know... I don't wanna go, but I really have no choice in the matter, I gotta..." He slid his arm under her neck and pulled her in closer.

She rolled in towards him and rested her head on his chest. "I know... but I still don't wantcha to..." And then she kissed him. Her lips were soft, they tasted of tequila and lime juice, her tongue snaked out from between them and played at his closed mouth. How could he not open up to her and allow her entrance? He accepted her kiss and deepened it, Joey climbed over him, and straddled his legs.

When they breathlessly parted, she rolled back to her prescribed spot on the grass and lifted the bottle again. "I always wanted to know what that would be like..."

"And?"

"It was nice, just like I thought it would be."

"And are you finished?" He just wanted to be kept abreast of the situation, is all.

Joey shrugged, taking another swig off the bottle and passing it back to Pacey. "I dunno... should I be?"

"I don't know," He rolled onto his stomach to look at her. Closed eyes, lips moist and parted, her hair fanned out on the grass, he wanted her to kiss him again. But, he had the rest of the night to go forward with anything. He could wait, he'd waited this long even though he hadn't known until this moment what he'd been waiting for. She opened her eyes and his face was just inches from hers, his chin resting on the flat of her chest.

"You're leaving in the morning... And who knows when the next time we'll see each other will be..."

Pacey nodded his head. If she kept going on like this, he was pretty sure he was going to cry. And he really didn't want anyone to see him like that. Not even Joey. Not even if she cried first, which looked inevitable. She wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him. Her voice was barely a whisper, "I don't wantcha t'go... I love you, Pacey."

And she did love him and he loved her, and it wasn't necessarily a romantic kind of love, but it was something that they were both going to miss in a really big way. If spending Pacey's last night in Capeside came down to them fooling around or whatever, maybe it would make them feel like they never missed out on anything together. He kissed her again. This time more persistent, with more hunger, and with more desperation.

* * *

Pacey's alarm went off at four-thirty in the morning, shaking him rudely from his sleep. Slapping the off button he turned to the sleeping body beside him and pressed his face into her hair, breathing deeply. His head was pounding and he felt like crap, but a headache couldn't stop this day from starting. He just wanted to slow it down for a minute. Joey turned into him and nuzzled her lips into the curve of his neck, nipping at his skin and rubbing against him.

"Mmmm... Pace?"

"Yeah?"

"You're a really good lay... How come you never told me what a good lay you were?" Her tongue slithered across his chin and into his mouth.

"It never really came up in conversation, Potter." Kissing her back, sucking her tongue between his teeth, running his hands up her sides to her breasts. They had spent the entire night in each other's arms. From Pacey's kiss outside, they had barely made it into the house and to Pacey's barren bedroom before she'd gotten his clothes off. It had sobered them more than they thought it would, making love all night, falling asleep only an hour or two before the alarm came to rip the sleep from them.

And there they were.

"One more time, Potter, for old time's sake?" He lifted her buttocks and pulled her onto him again, feeling her close around him like a vice, her arms wound around his neck, his hands guiding her on him as her back arched and her hair brushed his ankles.

* * *

And then he was gone.

Crossing the country, following his family in the Jeep through miles of America, places he had no time to see as he sped through tiny towns and huge cities. This was his first time seeing most of the country and it was flying by him too fast. Every six places or so, his father would wave him off the highway and they would eat in some diner type place. Pacey would call her, and they would whisper how much it really did hurt to be apart like this. He called Dawson, and Dawson said the same. Friends should be together.

They slept in small motels, their packed cars parked outside the window.

It takes five days to drive across the country if you stop a million times and sleep in tiny motels. Roswell, New Mexico. It's smaller than Capeside.

* * *

To be continued...

   [1]: mailto:pilar@chickmail.com



	2. L'Étranger

_Disclaimer:_ All right, so here's the deal. Everything Dawson's Creek and Roswell is copyright the WB television network and various other people. Infringement is really, really not intended. Storyline is all mine, backstory is theirs, title is from Albert Camus' book of the same name, I think it fits...

_Rating:_ At the moment we're holding down a firm R rating, but this one could steam up. Plus, there's a slash factor coming into play at some point in the near future, so you might as well say NC-17 just to hide it from tender sensibilities.

_Feedback:_ I want it. I need it. Please [send me your validation][1] or I will shrivel up and die a horrible and miserable death. Whaddaya think?

* * *

* * *

Part 2   
**A Dawson's Creek/Roswell Crossover Event**

* * *

First day of school, a new school no less, and Pacey was off to a brilliant start. He'd almost made it on time, and he would have had he not gotten so heinously lost. How does one get lost in the teeniest town imaginable? Pacey took a wrong turn and ended up in the middle of the damn desert. Backtracking, he'd finally found his way and ended up at Roswell High. Stupid directions. Stupid town. Stupid school.

The halls were almost desolate. He made his way to the office and stepped through the doors.

"Good morning, son. You must be Pacey Witter, did you get lost?" The beautiful, brown-skinned woman with thick, black hair smiled at him, opening a large folder and handing him a packet of orientation materials.

"Yes, Ma'am." Pacey returned her smile and turned on all the charm he could possibly muster considering the level of his misery.

She flipped through the paper work in front of her. "So, you're coming to us from all the way in Massachusetts, Pacey. That certainly is a long ways away. When did you arrive in Roswell?"

"We got into town last Monday and we've been unpacking and trying to get settled in. It's been very different, I've never lived anywhere else but capeside. There's no water here..." His voice dropped a decibel as he wistfully thought of home, his old home. Ocean and creek surrounded Capeside, Massachusetts. Roswell seemed merely miles and miles of sand.

"I've never been to the ocean, it must be very beautiful," she looked away from her file and wrote Pacey out a late pass, handing it to him. "Welcome to Roswell High School. You're late for first period, but go and check in nonetheless and have a nice day. I'm sure that you'll fit in perfectly here."

"Thank you, Ma'am."

"Good luck," she called as he exited into the hallway.

He was late for history, room 148. He looked down at the map that the secretary had given him among the stack of papers and glanced down the hall again. What is it about schools that says they should all use the same jarring color scheme? You would think that they would want calm, peaceful tones and not this horrific golden yellow and pseudo-wood. Capeside High was exactly the same.

Reaching the classroom, he hesitated a moment before opening the door. The class wasn't too crowded, the teacher sat on the edge of her desk lecturing on, Pacey listened closer, the Battle of Agincourt it sounded like she said. Right: Western History, 1413-1422, Henry V, England; he'd covered it last year and was amazed at the recollection. She caught view of his face at the door, _ugh_, and waved him inside, looking at her watch with disdain. He approached her slowly.

"Hi... I'm--"

"Pacey Witter, the new sheriff's son, I know. You're late."

"I'm sorry, I got l--" Pacey's eyes were pasted to his shoelaces.

"Fine, take a seat...," she glanced around the classroom, "beside Alex Whitman. Alex, raise your hand, please. Alex will catch you up to where we are, **quietly**. Thank you, Alex."

Pacey winced and followed her outstretched hand to the empty desk next to Alex. Smiling furtively, Alex showed him the open book turned to page 493. He leaned in to Pacey.

"Don't worry, she's always this bitchy." He stuck his hand out for him,"I'm Alex."

"Hey... Pacey, Pacey Witter. It's nice to meet you." The bell rang, cutting him off mid-sentence.

"What do you have next?"

Pacey shuffled through his stack of papers for the printed schedule, "Ummm... oh, shit. Gym."

"Ahhhh, lucky man, me too. Come on, I'll point you in the right direction."

Pacey shoved his new history book into his knapsack and followed the tall, thin boy into the hallway. They made polite conversation.

"So, where you from, dude?"

"Capeside, Massachusetts... it's pretty different from here..." He looked around him at the throngs of students filling the hallway.

"I'm sure, and it's got to be bigger." Alex seemed like a decent guy, a bit nerdy with a really lame haircut, but a nice guy. And who the hell was Pacey to talk anyway? He'd made Pacey feel comfortable almost immediately. Pushing through a set of double doors, they entered the gym. Alex led them into the locker room.

"Voila! The gymnasium. I'm sure it enthralls a big city man like yourself."

Pacey laughed, "You're severely over-estimating the breadth and depth of Capeside. It's almost as small as this place. Anyway, I'm not prepared for a gym vlass today, so I guess I'll see you out there. Thanks, man."

"Cool. See ya." Alex went towards the lockers and Pacey receded into the gym again, his eyes searching out the instructor. He wasn't a hard man to find, of course, who else could the stocky man in sweats with a whistle be? Pacey walked over slowly, stopping just behind another student who seemed to need the man's attention. Eventually, the coach waved him over and Pacey started the now familiar introduction.

"Hi, I'm Pacey Witter."

"The gym teacher held out his hand, "Hey... The New Kid. How's it going so far? You should be suited up for class, shouldn't you?" He looked at Pacey's street clothes and non-gym shoes.

"I'm sorry, I'm not prepared for gym today, I didn't think to bring clothes..." Pacey was determined to get off on a good foot in this school. No one knew him, and if he had to be here, then he might as well reinvent himself. He could be anyone he desired; prepared student, teacher's pet, jock, what have you. He didn't have to be the loser son of the Capeside Police Chief anymore. His reputation had not preceded him.

"That's all right, son. You can sit it out on the bleachers today, but tomorrow, I want to see you in gym clothes and proper sneakers." He looked at Pacey with a sidelong glance, "So... you play football, basketball, baseball?"

"Ummm... unfortunately I've never done the team sports thing. I play a bit of basketball, but nothing to write home about."

"That's too bad. I was really hoping that we'd pulled in a ringer." The students began filing in from the locker room and Pacey headed off for the sidelines reclining into the bleachers. Moments later as he watched the class go into action, another student entered the gym from the hallway, argued with the teacher and was sent to the bleachers with Pacey. The boy sat in a huff and leaned back on his elbows.

"Hey.." Pacey extended his open hand. "Pacey Witter, I'm new here..." The spikey-haired boy looked through him, slumping further in his seat and ignoring him. Pacey shook his head and rescinded the proffered handshake. Maybe not everyone in this stupid town was friendly. Whatever. Sifting through his papers, he attempted to seem occupied while everyone else did gym things. The period moved at a tortoise pace, an increasingly neurotic Pacey shuffling through papers and digging through his bookbag for things that didn't exist. Finally, the bell rang. Two more classes to get through before lunch, then three more before this travesty of a day would be over. Man, did he want it over.

Knowing that he would be "the new guy" for a while wasn't helping at all. There was a certain amount of comforting anonymity that the position lacked. And although Pacey had certainly never been one to fade into the shadows, he didn't like feeling stared at and wondered about. It made him feel like a slab of beef waiting for USDA approval. Plus, there was the fact that he was the son of the new sheriff in town. A position that he was sure would keep some people at bay until they'd decided he wasn't some narc.

Physics. He approached the teacher and introduced himself for the umpteenth time that day. This would also be something that he wouldn't miss once the day was over. That feeling of being scrutinized by every instructor, weighed by appearance and so-called permanent record, he hated it. And he wondered how much they all knew. She directed him towards a lab table in the back and handed him a textbook, by the end of the day, his bag was going to get unmanageable. Pacey never carried this many books that were his own.

He quietly took his seat as the second bell rang. This sucked, he should be back in Capeside High right now, the day mostly over, instead of sitting by himself, knowing just about nobody in this damn place, wishing he were home.

He looked around the room, half in a daydream. At least there were some hot chicks at this school. That one, the one at the front table with her books already open and her lab equipment spread out on the table in front of her, the one with the dark brown, silky hair, she could almost remind him of Joey if he squinted his eyes. That same innocent and intense expression and perfect lips, that same academic confidence that she exuded from her pores. Yeah, she was cute, kinda like Jo except shorter. And different.

There was no shortage of cheerleader types either, the perky, pretty girls that he loved to look at but could never get a hold of back home. The Christy Livingstones, oh how he loved the Christies. Well, maybe that would change now that no one knew him, maybe he could finally be the stud he'd always fancied himself to be. Hey, could happen. He smiled over at a gorgeous, tall blonde across the room and she passed her fingers through her thick hair. It could almost be considered a flirty move, definitely sexy. Yeah, he thought to himself, if I have to be here, I might as well take advantage of every opportunity. Make the best of a bad situation.

* * *

He'd made it through the morning basically without incident or event, now to deal with lunch. He grabbed some food from the counter and walked outside to the quad, suddenly losing interest in the food on his blue tray. Any appetite he'd thought he'd had was sucked away by the anxiety of having to deal with the lunch crowd. Friendships had probably been solidified by the time these kids were in fifth grade and there was a good chance that he wouldn't be welcomed into any of their cliques. Standing at the edge of the grass, he scoped out for an empty table or someplace, or whatever.

It was like a teen television drama, this. This vibe of standing in the middle of the banks of tables, suddenly seen in complete fisheye from a low camera angle, cue ominous background music, looking expectantly into a crowd of people that he didn't know and feeling their judging eyes evaluating him. Pacey had never given a shit about appearances or public opinion, at least on the surface. Deep down he wanted everyone to like him, to love him, to want to be him, or at least to entertain them for a minute. At this juncture, he needed public opinion though. He tugged nervously at the hem of his Hawaiian shirt, wishing for a moment that he hadn't worn something so distinctly Pacey, wishing he had worn something to help him fade into the background, rather than stand in the middle of this cliched 90210 moment. The people he passed, walking towards his mecca table, melted in a blur of molasses slow-motion, his own anxiety droning heatedly in his eardrums. Over it, he somehow heard his own name.

"Pacey! Hey!" He turned towards the voice and the world around him sped up again. "Hey, you wanna join us?"

Alex Whitman pointed to the empty space of lunch table opposite him. Without thinking, or paying any attention to the disbelieving looks of his compatriots, he agreed and sat.

"Pacey... Uhhhh... Witter, right? This is Liz Parker, Isabel and Max Evans, and... Michael Guerin."

Pacey smiled genuinely at them, "Hey, nice to meet you..."

"Pacey's from the East coast. Massachusetts, right? So how're you fitting in so far?"

Pacey weighed the question. How was he fitting in so far? There was no easy answer to that one. He missed home and was pretty sure that this odd place, smack dab in the middle of Bumfuck, Egypt, was never going to feel like home. No matter how much effort he put into it, or how nice people wanted to be to him. "Ehhhh... all right, I guess. The whole experience has definitely been weirder than I had expected."

"It's always weird trying to fit in someplace new, especially when you're not from around here." Isabel Evans smiled at him, flipping her hair over a shoulder. The pretty girl from Physics. The other one, the one who had reminded him of Joey, sat beside him, not really reminding him of her from up close. Her expression was too... guarded maybe. Her mouth hung open and she looked abruptly concerned.

"Where are you from?" He asked Isabel.

"Oh! I didn't mean it like that. Max and I grew up here." Her brother looked at her incredulously, and the spikey-haired cocksucker from gym shot her an icy glare. Whatever. There was something really wrong with these people. Pacey ignored them, maybe he was being too judgmental himself, attributing his own anxiety to the people around him.

"Move over, Alex." Another unbelievably sexy blonde approached the table, bumping Alex in the shoulder with her silver, vinyl-clad hip. She opened her mouth to speak, closing it quickly as she noticed Pacey's eyes boring into her. Alex's girlfriend? He hoped not. What was up with the girls at this school? Was there an ugly one among them? Must be something in the water.

"Maria!" Alex shoved over to make room for her. "This is the new kid, Pacey. Pacey, Maria DeLuca. Don't mind her, she's always wandering around with her mouth hanging open." Alex stole a fry off her plate and she smacked his hand away.

"Hey, you're the new Sheriff's kid, huh?"

"Yeah... We just moved here last week, I only just found out we were moving about two weeks ago. How much does _that_ suck?"

"Man, that blows! But, I guess considering the circumstances, we needed a replacement law enforcement officer kinda suddenly."

"Considering the circumstances?" Everyone at the table looked at Maria with widened eyes. She made a face at Liz and began her answer.

"Yeah... well... the last Sheriff was killed, like, three weeks ago. I figured you knew the story since your dad replaced him." More disbelieving looks from the peanut gallery.

"My father doesn't exactly hand out a lot of information. About anything. So what's the dirt? How did it happen?" Morbid curiosity had kicked in.

Liz Parker's soft voice took over. She placed her hand on top of Max's and the Guerin kid glared, it seemed his only expression. The former Sheriff's name was Valenti and he had apparently died of unexplained circumstances at the mouth of a cave in the woods. They have woods here? Some speculation said he'd been struck by a freak bolt of lightening and his heart had just stopped. Only problem was, it hadn't been storming at the time, it had been a clear night. They found his body days after he'd died, after much searching. Liz told the story with a grand flourish, like someone would spin a ghost story.

"There are some people who say it was..." Her voice dropped to a dramatic whisper and she looked around her mock-suspiciously, "...the aliens that got him."

"Yeah, right..." Pacey practically spit the Pepsi he was drinking, "Like there are really aliens. People here don't honestly believe that shit, do they?"

"There are no such **things** as **aliens**, Liz." Michael said snidely, standing and leaving the table in a huff. Pacey looked to Alex. Alex said nothing. Isabel seemed about to leap out of her skin, Max put a reassuring hand on her back.

"I'll go talk to him, Izzy. Sorry, Pacey... Michael's temperamental at times, it's really been nice to meet you..."

It was a bizarre crowd. Three beautiful women, a geek, the calmest guy Pacey had ever met, and an asshole who, for whatever reason, really seemed to get Pacey's blood riled. Somehow, Pacey felt like he recognized "his people" in them.

Isabel leaned across the table towards him, her wrists crossed in front of her and her blonde hair falling over her arms. There was no mistaking it -- she was definitely flirting with him. A little more of this and he might have to become cocky.

"So...," she said huskily, "What _do_ you think of Roswell so far? Pretty devastating, huh?" Her button down shirt was open to the third hole and when she leaned in like that, her breasts pushed together and swelled from the top of her bra. Damn.

Pacey hoped that there wasn't a puddle of drool collecting on his lunch tray. His head began to nod absently and he stopped himself, shaking himself out of the transfixed stupor. This one had an innate talent, man... He looked up at her, regaining his composure, and cocked his head.

"I haven't seen much yet, but I'll get back to you on that as soon as I have." He leaned back on his hands and smiled at her.

Whitman cut in, breaking the thick heat between them. "Liz? do you have the Spanish homework? I wanna compare, I think I did it all wrong..."

"You mean you want to grift mine, right?" She said with a grin, glancing back towards her preoccupation near the trees at the edge of the quad. The oddly soft-spoken Max stood half-arguing with the prick. They all seemed preoccupied with the drama over there. Mental note: dark-haired one: taken. Blonde with the blow-job lips: infatuated, but seemingly available. Isabel: super-fine, super-forward, could be trouble.

As the day went, the bell rang and he checked his class list. Off to English. He bid the group adieu and lifted his tray to dispose of the half-eaten detritus and felt a soft hand on his arm. He gave a start, turning towards the touch and grinned at her.

"Which way are you walking, Pacey?" Isabel Evans looked up through her eyelashes at him, standing impossibly close. He felt Whitman's eyes on them.

"Towards English, whichever direction that is. Maybe you can show me? I seem to get _so_ lost around here..." If she was going to put on the moves, then the least he could do was return the favor. The tone in his voice was innocent and teasing. Pacey didn't know what he'd done to deserve this good luck, but he might have to get down on his knees and thank someone for this streak.

"Mmmmm... unfortunately I'm not going anywhere near that side of the campus. Maybe next time..." She flipped her hair in that signature move with a perfectly manicured hand, "Bye, Pacey..." Her husky voice rolled around his name and her lips curled up just slightly. He watched her walk away from him, her long strides and the shake in her hips. What was the word she had used? Devastating? Yeah... devastating.

Pacey went to the rest of his classes, bored to tears by the repetition of each introduction. He made acquaintances, no one that he could really see spending any quality time with. Maria was in his French class and she'd been extremely nice to him. High-strung, but fine. Those lips gave him carnal thoughts he tried to push out of his mind before the bell rang and he'd have to stand up.

Nothing but sex swept through his mind lately. Lately? Nah, that was a complete lie. It had always been that way, for years now. Just that there had been other stuff to think about as well. Without his real friends around to keep his mind occupied, idle thoughts turned to sex. Well, it was better than thinking about all of the things that sucked about this place and how long it would be before he saw them again.

* * *

On his way from the building after school, he felt the tiniest twang of loneliness, like he should be doing something else in that moment. Something specific. Places to go, people to see kinds of things, rather than going back to his still half-packed house and sitting alone in his room that didn't feel his. His best friend was becoming the Playstation and the porno mag. His jeep stood parked on the far end of the lot, alone like he was.

"Liz couldn't handle Kyle, Michael, and I'm not going to go through that again. You can't _"take care"_ of everything... so I'm keeping my eyes on this one."

Pacey looked towards the hushed voices behind the tree on his left. Isabel Evans stood arguing with the one who obviously thrived on argument.

"Watch yourself, Isabel. I don't like this at all." Pacey eyed them as he passed and Guerin's eyes widened. Isabel turned towards his gaze, looking straight towards Pacey and smiling with all the sweetness she could muster.

"Don't worry so much, Michael." She said over her shoulder, approaching Pacey. "how about a ride home, Pacey?"

What was it he was supposed to be doing after school? Right, nothing. "Sure... come on, I'm parked right over there." He chivalrously took her books from her arms and led her towards the car, Michael's angry stare following them through the lot.

* * *

The CD player blasted heavy raging music and her thick, blonde hair whipped in the open air. It was too loud to speak, which might have been a good thing, since Pacey felt on the verge of saying something stupid every time he looked at her. He met her eyes every few minutes then returned them to the open road ahead.

"Take the next left, " she yelled over the wailing bass.

"Huh?" Pacey reached for the knob and lowered the volume.

"The next left, take it."

"Wow. You live pretty far from school," he noticed.

"You're not taking me home yet, I'm taking you sight seeing." Isabel smiled again. She had this amazing mouth with these perfectly formed white teeth that seemed to sparkle between heavily glossed lips. It was probably a little too early to just lean over and kiss her, but the thought crossed his mind more than once. The way that she let her hair stick to her lip gloss and the way her eyes gleamed in his peripheral vision was enough to kill any seventeen year old dead. Pacey had always been a sucker for a beautiful girl.

"So, where are we going?"

"There's a reservoir back here. It's an amazing place, I don't think there's anyplace like it on the planet... But you haven't told me what it's like in your home town..."

They pulled into a wide open stretch of amber desert surrounded by monoliths and Pacey cut the engine. The afternoon sun beat down on his arms and neck. Without the air of the road to cool him down, the sweat pricked up in beads on his forehead.

He walked to the edge of the pool, cut from the rock and shining blue green. "Wow. Nothing like this..." It took his breath away.

She nodded and sat in the hard sand, stripping to a tank top and pulling her hair into a loose ponytail off of her face. Pacey's breath, stolen again. "Awe inspiring...," he said in almost a whisper. She tapped the spot in front of her.

"Come. Sit down, tell me something about yourself."

He complied. What else could he possibly do?

"Not much to say, really. I'm just your average high school senior forced to move twenty-five hundred miles across the country, away from his friends and loved ones, to a strange new land filled with complex mystery and all this sand. And what about you? Are you always this nice to "the new guy"?" His voice was lighthearted, he meant no offense.

"To be honest, we get a lot of tourists out here, but it's a very rare treat to actually get an honest to god new resident in Roswell."

Pacey gave her his partial life history, purposely leaving out any key details that might serve to lessen his worth in her beautiful eyes. No tales of Tamara and the sophomore year tryst of theirs. No tales of Andie and her stint in the nuthouse. No drawn out sagas of his failure at just about everything. She told him next to nothing about herself, all obvious chit chat lacking any meat. She seemed strangely guarded, Pacey thought for a moment before pushing it aside and concentrating on her movements rather than her words. Damn sexy.

After a couple of hours of idle chatter and staring at the water, she checked her watch. "I have to be home for dinner soon. Do you mind giving me that ride now?"

"Come on." Pacey stood and held out his hand for her, pulling her up to her feet. "Thanks for bringing me here, Isabel, it's really sweet of you. I've been really unsure of everything since we left Capeside, and your being so nice to me has made me feel worlds better." He didn't drop her hand and she made no move to pull away, maybe he should go in for that kiss now. Her face was turned up towards the sun and her eyes were halfway closed with a faraway look in them, almost entranced. Finally, she looked back at him and a smile crept across her lips.

"Anytime." She allowed his hand to drop and walked towards the car. Pacey kicked himself for letting the opportunity go to waste, but figured there was more than enough time to pursue her later. Besides, why get caught up in one girl when there was a whole school of them he hadn't explored yet?

"What?" There was a curious smile on her face.

"What what?"

"What's the face for? What's so funny?" He looked at her playfully, wondering what could possibly be going through that mind of hers, clueless as to what it could honestly be.

"Nothing... I was just... thinking about how much I love it here," she lied.

"It is... it's gorgeous." And so are you went through his mind, but he decided to leave it out. Better to play it cool rather than tip his hand to her so quickly. Playing hard to get seemed to be what girls reacted to best. Besides, she might have been just being nice to him, there was that chance. It was slim, but it was there. Capeside's Pacey Witter would have been already scheming up ways to jump her bones. And he still was, not so deep inside his brain. Roswell's Pacey decided to keep it cool. Let someone chase him for a change. She directed him back through town and towards her house and he kissed her on the cheek when they arrived.

What was that old saying? If you set something free, or something? Yeah... he'd play his cards differently here, it was a brand spankin' new deck.

* * *

The phone rang six times before a tired voice picked it up.

"Uhhhh... hello?"

"Jo? It's me... Did I wake you?"

Pacey! Duh... it's after midnight. Time difference, Einstein."

"Shit, I forgot... I'm sorry, I just wanted to talk, nothing important. I'll call you tomorrow."

He made to hang up, but she interjected. "You've woken me already, so you might as well keep me up too. How was the first day of school? Did you bring all of your teachers apples and behave, like a good boy?"

"Yes, Miss Potter. It was weird, but all right, I guess."

"Well, that sounds hopeful... what's it like?"

"Just like any other school, I suppose. Same stupid, yellow lockers, lunch at picnic tables outside. It's hot as hell here though, I'm going to have to adjust my wardrobe."

"I'm sure, I mean, you are in the middle of the desert. capeside must feel a million miles away..." Her voice fell, "We miss you, Pacey. Nothing's the same. Today, at lunch, Dawson was bickering with Andie about something stupid that you would have had some crazy opinion about, and all I wanted to do was hear your reaction..."

"I miss you, too..." He looked over at the framed photographs on his desk. One, taken when Dawson was filming his "award-winning horror film", showed the three of them smiling. Pacey wore that accursed sea monster suit and Dawson held his camcorder. Joey stood between them, then boyish in a tank top and shorts, legs up to her arm-pits. Still, sexy as hell. They just hadn't really noticed it yet.

"So? Make any new friends yet? Pick up any hot cheerleaders and nail them behind the bleachers?"

"Josephine Potter! I'm ashamed of you! Get your filthy mind out of the gutter! For Christ's sake, today was only the _first_ day of school. That's pencilled in tomorrow's schedule. First, I have to find the bleachers..." They both laughed. "Actually, there are some okay people in my classes, I met some interesting ones. This one chick took me sightseeing after school."

"A _chick_ took you _sightseeing_? You had her in your car and you didn't Nail her? Pacey, I'm disappointed in you."

"Is "nail" the word of the day, Potter?"

She guffawed.

"Is that a note of jealousy I hear hidden behind your sarcasm? Why, Joey... I never knew you cared!" Pacey mocked back at her.

"Wishful thinking... But seriously, it's all right, then? I mean, you think you'll fit in okay and you're already dating..."

"Yeah, this one guy in my first two classes introduced me to a few of his friends, so the lunch break wasn't as traumatic as it could have been. And no, I'm not dating already, we just drove out to the reservoir for a few hours. You're not really jealous, are you?"

Nah, Pacey... not really. We'll always be close friends, you and I. But, if I allow myself to wax nostalgic for a moment, I do wish that we had figured out how, uh..., compatible we were a little earlier on, that would have been nice too. But I've got a date myself this weekend, so there."

"Anyone I know?"

"Nope. New guy in the kitchen. he seems like an all right guy. Very attentive."

"Well, if he touches you, you do realize that I'm going to have to drive back to Capeside and whip his ass, right?"

"I wish you could... and this girl -- what's her name, anyway?"

"Isabel."

"Isabel. Pretty... So if this Isabel withholds the goods, I'll have to fly out there and pressure some sense into her." She laughed.

"Yeah, well, I don't think it'll get that far, really. She's kind of... I don't know, maybe a little fake. Don't get me wrong, she's a hottie... but I'm not sure she's what I'm looking for. Anyway, Potter... you have to go back to bed... sleep tight."

"'Night."

He hung up the telephone and picked up another photograph from his desk, propping it against his lamp on the nightstand. He and Joey, taken by her sister as they sat across a picnic table arguing. It was by far his favorite.

* * *

To be continued...

**[BACK ][2]**| **NEXT | [BACK TO DC FIC][3] | [BACK TO ROSWELL FIC][4]**

   [1]: mailto:pilar@chickmail.com
   [2]: etranger.html
   [3]: dcindex.html
   [4]: rwindex.html



	3. L'Étranger

_Disclaimer:_ All right, so here's the deal. Everything Dawson's Creek and Roswell is copyright the WB television network and various other people. Infringement is really, really not intended. Storyline is all mine, backstory is theirs, title is from Albert Camus' book of the same name, I think it fits...

_Rating:_ It's getting a little bit hotter in here, but I think we're still riding the R rating.

_Feedback:_ I want it. I need it. Please [send me your validation][1] or I will shrivel up and die a horrible and miserable death. Whaddaya think?

* * *

* * *

Part 3   
**A Dawson's Creek/Roswell Crossover Event**

* * *

Pacey sat on the hood of his Jeep, leaning his head against the windshield and pouring over his unfinished English homework. It felt as if he'd never really adjust to life in this place, everything still felt so awkward. And Pacey was never one for awkward. He stared down the doors to West Roswell High as if challenging them to welcome him. It didn't work.

Nearly two weeks of classes had passed by him and he hadn't even begun to feel completely comfortable here. Not that that was a very long time, but it was long enough to really start to wear on him. His clothes were all wrong for the weather here, he was still achingly jobless, and there were just too many people he didn't know and it felt like he would never get to know them. Ugh. Everything seemed fake, more like a movie set or something. Pacey hadn't really sussed out his role yet. Sure, he'd met some decent people and he had burgeoning little crushes on half the senior class, but tonight was Friday night and he still had shit all to do. Even as a less than popular Capeside guy, he had Friday night plans. This just kinda sucked.

He missed his friends. He missed Dawson's bullshit and roses, he missed Jo's wry sense of humor. He missed them all, even the things he hated about each of them he found himself waxing nostalgic over. And the phone calls were doing nothing but make his need for a freaking job even more desperate. He really needed to get a life. The possibility of spending yet another Saturday night watching cable with his mom wasn't really stirring him.

He heard footsteps in the gravel behind him and turned towards the sound, Maria Deluca and Liz Parker shimmied between the tightly parked cars. He shielded his eyes from the sun with a hand.

"Good morning, ladies." Pacey grinned like an ass.

"Hey...," the uninterested Liz said sweetly.

"Hi, Pacey. How's Roswell treating you so far?" Maria leaned in and rested her elbows on the hood of the Jeep ducking into Pacey's shadow.

"So far, so good, I guess... I was just trying to finish up yesterday's English. I forgot all about it last night."

"Ooooo! Hot date last night, new boy?" Maria spread those lips of hers into a flirtatious smile. Or, he wanted to think it was flirtatious when it might only be friendly. Whatever, didn't really matter.

Liz rolled her eyes. "Maria, I have to get to class early. I'll see you later. Nice seeing you, Pacey." She walked purposefully towards the school leaving he and Maria alone. Pacey sat up and collected his things into his knapsack. Maria shifted her weight onto the car behind her.

"So?"

"So, what?" _Man, those lips should be outlawed_

"So, you never answered me... Hot date last night, English homework pushed aside?"

He smiled at her, liking the way that she operated. Very straightforward. "Yeah, right. Hot date with the Nintendo, if that counts..."

"It doesn't count." Maria laughed and ran her tongue over her front teeth.

_Damn. A guy might bust a nut thinking about what those lips could be capable of... Pacey, down boy._ "Yeah, I didn't think so." _All right, Pacey... take it down a notch, it hasn't been that long..._

"And what about tonight?"

"What about tonight?" he repeated.

"Hot date tonight? Which lonely Roswell girl are you taking to the party out by the ridge?"

Pacey looked at her, clueless. "Actually, this is the first I've heard about this party. What's up at the ridge? And where is this ridge?" He quirked an eyebrow at her inquisitively.

"Wow. I can't believe you haven't heard about this thing! It's going to be huge, there've been flyers all over school. Well, anyway, you know about it now. It's just outside of town, about halfway to the Reservation. I could draw you a map..."

Pacey saw his chance and drew back his lips, biting his tongue between his teeth and cocking his head to one side. "Or... you could take me with you and you can show me the way." He glanced at her sidelong.

Maria seemed to think about it for a moment, staring off at a point beyond him over his left shoulder. There was a somewhat nervous flash in her eyes and then she relaxed again, bringing her eyes back to his. "All right. Sure."

"Good. Excellent. Then it's a date." He slid down off the car, facing her. There was hardly any room for both of them, their bodies smushed together. He moved to one side.

"A date. Right." She smiled again. "Well, I have to get to the gym, so I'll see you at lunch and we can iron out the details then." Pacey noticed her quickly shoot a look over his shoulder again before she turned to trot away. "See ya later, Pacey!" He waved and watched her go for a second before turning to quell his curiosity. Of course, Guerin. The bastard was everywhere, it seemed. Well, screw him.

* * *

"You have got to be kidding me, Maria! What about Michael?" Liz Parker stood close to her locker speaking to her friend in a shrill whisper, her eyes wide.

"I've decided that it's a shit or get off the pot situation. If Michael doesn't want to deal with me on anything more than a physical level, then it behooves me to take the better opportunities as they opportune themselves. Besides," she moved in closer and looked around her cautiously. "He's fine. You know he is... Have you seen his eyes? They're, like, six different colors..."

"You are just doing this to make Michael jealous." Liz stood her ground. Liz thought it was easier if the six of them just stayed together, for everyone's sake. It was the safest way.

"I am not. Liz, Michael and I just don't have what you and Max do. We're not destined soulmates or anything like that... and even if I was... well, whatever." She raised an eyebrow at Liz, indicating that they had company.

"Liz..." Max spoke in that disconcerting soft voice that made Maria both calm and nervous at the same time.

"Hi, Max." She looked up at him with huge eyes. They made Maria nauseous.

"I was wondering if you would take a walk with me through lunch? I wanted to talk..."

"Um, Hello?" Maria said pointedly. They were really too much.

"Oh, Maria... I'm sorry. Hi. Liz?"

"Sure, Max... let's go. We'll talk more about this later, Maria." Liz stuffed her books into her locker and shut the door with a click.

"Talk more about what? Anything I should be concerned about?"

Maria turned her head towards the voice. Michael stood so close that she could feel his hot breath prickle the back of her neck. She grit her teeth; he wasn't going to get anything out of her, he didn't deserve it.

"Nothing."

"Nothing? Funny, Liz didn't seem to think whatever it was is nothing." He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Nothing that is any of your business. Y'know, the entire universe does not revolve around Michael Guerin. Ugh!" She huffed and stomped off towards the cafeteria without looking back at him.

He made her so mad sometimes. Sure they'd been seeing each other on and off for over a year, but Michael had never made even close to any type of commitment to her and he consistently reminded her that he had no ties to Roswell and he could take off at any time. What the hell else was she supposed to do? Rot? No freakin' way! Michael Guerin could kiss her ass, she was moving on.

* * *

The cafeteria was one of Pacey's least favorite places in West Roswell High, he just wanted it to be another cafeteria across the country. He could get through day after day of boring classes and concentrate on other things, but for some reason, when he entered the cafeteria and grabbed his lunch off the sneeze-guarded displays, he got more homesick than ever. He'd taken to lunching with Alex Whitman every day so far. Four days in and he already had a routine, it was comforting but also kind of pathetic. And Alex was a good guy, it wasn't his fault that Pacey didn't want to really be there.

They seemed to get along pretty well, Pacey pegged him right off as a real stand up guy. In Pacey's book, there really was no higher compliment. But, conversation was already beginning to get a little tedious. Alex had the most intense, earth-shattering, all-encompassing "thing" for Isabel Evans.

Pacey had made the early mistake of mentioning her to Alex in the locker room before gym the morning after she had taken him to the reservoir and Alex all but proclaimed her as his own. Isabel didn't seem the type to belong to anyone other than Isabel, but Alex's proclamation was all Pacey needed to step back and give up on her. Truth be told, she really didn't do it for him anyway. There was something just a little off about her. In fact the whole group of them, including Alex sometimes, seemed a little weird. They watched their mouths more than anyone he had ever met before; there was this unspoken law between them. Pacey plain vibed it.

Not that she had pursued him since that evening either, he had to admit. But even if she had, he would have had to forego. Alex was his first friend in town and she was only one girl in a sea of thousands. It had to be more important to cultivate some friendships before worrying needlessly about getting laid. Pacey could always get laid.

Alex and Maria were sat at the outside table facing each other when he arrived with his lunch tray. He stood over the table unsure for a moment on which side to sit. Finally, he slid his tray onto the table and sat beside Maria. She turned as he sat and flashed him an uneasy smile. It was cute. 

"Hey, Pacey! How's it hangin'?"

"It's hangin', man. It's hangin'." He smiled and began to dive into his meat concoction.

"So you going to this thing tonight?" Alex asked.

Pacey smiled and shifted his eyes towards Maria, whose eyes were reflected in her compact staring back at him. He was getting increasingly more excited for this date of theirs. "Yeah, I'm going. You?"

"I'm not sure yet, I have to see what Isabel's up to."

Maria rolled her eyes as if to signify her thinking that Alex really needed to give it up. "Alex, I'm sure that she's going to be there with her obnoxious posse. We're all going to be there, just go. And forget about Isabel for once, jeez..."

Alex looked wounded. "God, Maria. If anyone should understand, you should. Man..."

Pacey leaned in towards Alex. "Really, Whitman. You have to come tonight, I hear it's the party of the century. It'll be cool." What he really wanted to say was that Isabel was completely not worth Alex's over-inflated affections, but he knew that his words would go over like a lead zeppelin. He could see where some guys would be completely ga-ga over her, she was an incredible babe, but she was really an odd bird. The time they had spent together made him feel awkward ever since; a strange feeling. Like she knew everything about him and he knew nothing. He felt stripped. If she was capable of doing that in one afternoon, imagine what she could do during the time span of an entire relationship. The thought gave him the shivers.

Alex, of course, stared off into the direction where she and Guerin sat at another table across the quad. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I'll be there, right after band rehearsal."

"Damn! We have practice tonight? Ugh... I completely spaced it."

"Ummm yeah, Maria. Every Wednesday and Friday for what, the past year and a half? Duh."

"You guys are in a band?" Pacey was intrigued, sounded like fun. He didn't have an ounce of musical talent in his body.

Alex went off into a lengthy explanation of the theories behind the band and their music and their plans for commercial success through playing live and getting a record deal. Maria stayed mostly silent, smirking. At least Alex was capable of talking about something other than Isabel.

"Alex plays guitar and I front. We don't completely suck," she said rather plainly.

"Well, what time does your practice end? I can pick you up after, or something?" Pacey offered.

Her eyes widened. "Actually, I'll want to freshen up first. You can pick me up at my house at nine. That sound good? Alex, you can get there on your own, right?" Maria looked over at Whitman nodding slowly to convince him.

"Yeah, that's cool," he paused. "Hey! Are you guys going on a _date_?" He let out a snort.

"You have issue with that, Dad?" Maria laughed, but shot an obnoxious look at him.

There was a sudden faraway expression on Alex's face. Isabel must be on the approach, Pacey thought. Whitman looked a lot like a lovesick camel whenever she got close.

"Hi." Isabel stopped directly behind Pacey, he had to crane his neck to look towards her.

"Hey, Isabel. Are you going to that shindig tonight? I thought maybe..." Alex tapered off.

"Yes, Alex. I'll be there." She spoke to him deliberately, much like a teacher to a class of second graders. "Pacey, would you like to drive me?" Pacey's eyes stayed on Alex, he looked dejected and shocked. Poor kid, couldn't he see the games she played on him?

"Sorry, Isabel. I've already got plans for tonight." Pacey returned, his gaze still locked with his friend's. "Do you need a lift? Alex could probably drive you. Alex?"

"Oh yeah. Of course. Sure."

He didn't turn to see her reaction, but he was relatively sure that he knew what it was. Girls like her were basically all the same, and he's been in the Alex position too many times to count at this point. Isabel's entire point of this display was to make Alex jealous and lead him on more than she already did on a day to day basis. Plus, she had the added bonus of getting to pull one of those famous "I'll do you a favor and let you take me out" routines. Pacey felt good to turn the tables on her, even though it would hardly affect her.

Who was this newfound Pacey, really? All of this was so out of character for him, but it served so many purposes that he had no choice to act this way. Sure, she was gorgeous and he could totally see what held Alex transfixed on her. Extremely gorgeous, totally popular and entirely trouble. Three things that normally would have Pacey on his knees. But again, Alex was Pacey's first real friend in Roswell, and Pacey liked him. And he liked her. And Pacey had been down this road already and it didn't really taste good. Plus, there was the Maria factor, and he liked seeing that same satisfaction he felt cross her face.

Maria and Isabel seemed friendly enough, but it seemed like more of a product of outside factors rather than any real desire to hang out with each other. Or maybe Pacey was spending way too much time trying to figure all of these people out and was beginning to write it all his own way. It didn't really matter in the end, did it. Whatever he could come up with was infinitely more amusing than real life these days. But maybe shit was looking up, he did have a date tonight. It had been a long while since he'd had a real date.

In the end, Isabel played it all off and Alex was more than a little stoked with the results. You would have thought that she came up and asked him out herself, Alex was such a fool for her. Pacey definitely knew that completely entrenched feeling.

"So, you wanna know where I live?" Maria broke the silence of the table as Isabel strode back towards her table.

"Oh, yeah. Let me write down your address." He pulled a sheet of paper from his notebook and she pulled out a pen.

It's right outside of town, you can't miss it. And here's my number just in case. I should be out of rehearsal by eight, right Maestro? So try not to get too lost and pick me up by about nine-thirty."

"Will do. Well, off to class I guess..." Picking up his knapsack, he headed off towards English, finally completed homework in hand. Turning a corner in the corridor, he bumped head on into Michael Guerin, knocking a can of soda from his hand and sending it exploding over the linoleum. Guerin jumped back to avoid the spray.

"What the fuck is wrong with you, can't you see more than two feet in front of your face?" Michael yelled.

"Hey, it was an accident, man. Calm down." There was really something wrong with this guy, he'd had it out for Pacey from the minute he'd arrived in town. It was odd. Mostly everyone had been pretty decent to him, this guy's friends no less, but Guerin was just a real bastard from moment one. Well, Pacey thought, he can kiss my ass.

"I will not calm down, you've been a real pain in my ass since you got here, Witter. Just fucking know I've got my eyes on you. One move I don't like, you're mine." He turned on his heels and clomped off down the hall leaving the spilled soda in a puddle on the floor.

Pacey stared down at it for a moment, confused by Guerin's reaction and his words. Whatever was going on with that one, he'd never be able to explain. He flashed to the overheard conversation between he and Isabel, and although he hadn't thought about it at all that day, he wondered if maybe they had been talking about him that afternoon. What was it she had said? 

_"Liz couldn't handle Kyle, Michael, and I'm not going to go through that again. You can't **"take care"** of everything... so I'm keeping my eyes on this one."_

Kyle? He knew the name... he'd been taking in so much over the past weeks that names and faces hadn't really started to synch up yet. But they were all in there, waiting to come together. Kyle Valenti? He'd seen that name in the award case outside the gym. And he'd heard it before that as well... Shuffling through his mind, he tried to place it. Bingo! The dead Sheriff, the one who had gotten killed, facilitating Pacey's recent move from Capeside.

So, they had problems with the cops, did they? He thought about each of them. They seemed okay enough, except for that Guerin. But nothing stood out as necessarily illegal activity. They didn't seem the stoner types at all. Or, maybe, that was Guerin's problem and everyone else protected him? He wondered how many of them were involved. Well, he'd see them outside of school for the first time tonight, he could vibe it out then. A party was the best time to figure out if your new friends had drug issues. Michael Guerin could easily be the dealer of the bunch.

Pacey laughed out loud at himself. For once, he was really starting to sound like his father with all of this shady deductive reasoning and thinking the worst. Hilarious. He was probably making it all up in his mind and putting together the completely wrong facts. Well, he'd see... Pacey had been very much on his toes since he'd landed in Roswell.

* * *

There was a message waiting from Dawson when he got home from school. Sitting at the dining room table, he dialed Capeside.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Mrs. Leery. It's Pacey. Is Dawson there?"

"Oh! Hello, Pacey... How are you? We miss you so much around here, there's been no one to eat all of my leftovers!"

"I really miss your fridge, Mrs. Leery... but it's getting better here. Very strange town, Roswell."

"Well, all that alien activity must get very draining, I'd suspect," she laughed. "Well, hold on, dear. I'll get Dawson. Take care of yourself and come back and visit us over the holiday, won't you?"

"Thanks, I'd like that."

"You're always welcome in our house, Pacey. Now hold on..." Gale called up to Dawson and Pacey heard him lift the receiver.

"Hello?"

"D-man! Good to hear your voice!" Pacey did miss having Dawson to talk to, even if everything between them was very different than when they were kids. Dawson had been seeing Nikki Green for almost a year before Pacey had left town and they spent so much time together that Pacey and Dawson had grown slightly apart. But they still talked about everything and were still the best of friends; had been since before time, it seemed.

"Pace, how's Roswell? Joey said she's spoken to you about a hundred times and I was starting to get jealous. Sorry I haven't called lately."

"It's all right, man. I know how busy you are, and me too... I've been trying desperately to get settled in here, make some new friends and all that."

"And?"

"And it's going... you know. It's kinda hard coming into a school three years in and trying to situate yourself in somewhere. I guess I'm lucky though, got me a date tonight."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, king of the one word answers today..." Pacey laughed through the line. "Yeah... taking this chick, Maria, to some party out on some ridge. Sounds like fun, and she's cute."

"Oh yeah, a little romance on the horizon? Go get 'em, Pacey!"

"Yeah, well... it's all good. We'll see where it goes."

"You don't sound all that optimistic for a guy with a hot date... what's up?"

Pacey thought for a moment, he didn't have words to really describe the feeling that everyone and everything in Roswell gave him. "Dunno, really... I'm optimistic, actually. She's cute and sweet and all, but the people here are freaks, Dawson."

"Eh... they can't be any stranger than Capeside folk."

"Yeah, I guess you're right..." He thought about the little incidents that caused him to use those words; the momentary flash he felt when Isabel touched him, the feeling that she knew everything about him in the one, brief second, the odd conversation he overheard between her and Guerin, the constant look of secrecy on Max Evans' face, the feeling that all conversation stopped when he approached. Pacey heard his mother calling up to him. "Well, dude. It's dinner. I'll catch you later. Call me soon, right?"

"All right, Pace. Have a good time tonight!"

"I will man, and you take care of everyone back there, 'kay?"

"Later."

"Bye." And he hung up the phone realizing how much he really missed home.

* * *

Staring into his closet, Pacey wondered what people wore out in this godforsaken place. Sure, it was September, but it was still hot as hell. He worried for a moment or two before pulling out one of his rote Hawaiian shirts and a pair of khakis. Whatever.

"Where are you off to, honey?" His mother stood at his open door and gazed inside as he stood in front of the mirror putting some gunk into his hair. It was his only attempt at really "getting ready". Feeling much like a tool, he stared at his reflection wondering when he'd decided to give a shit.

"I have a date, Mom. Shouldn't be home too late."

"Well, you enjoy yourself... I'm so glad you're starting to fit in here. Maybe I'm next?"

"Yeah... I'm sure you'll start to meet people soon, Ma. It's pretty hard starting over..." He said it as much for himself as he did for her. Sliding his hand over his hair one last time, he turned to his mother, "So?"

"She's a very lucky girl, Pacey."

"Thanks, Mom." He felt bad to leave her, almost. She was as lonely as he felt lately.

* * *

He had a map, damnit. Why the hell was it so damn impossible to find one freakin' street? In a few minutes, he was going to be officially late. Pulling over at a grocery store he'd probably passed four hundred times in his incessant circling, he pulled out the wrinkled scrap of paper she'd scrawled on and finally asked for directions.

He was precisely around the corner. Damnit.

He parked the jeep in front of her apartment building and rang the buzzer.

"Be right out!" She appeared at the window beside him and leaned out.

"Hey..." In a second, his night seemed to change tone. Maria looked hot, at least from the waist up, wearing a bright pink and iridescent tank top that strapped around her neck rather than her shoulders. Smiling at her, he leaned against the bricks.

Okay, so it wasn't just from the waist up. Maria emerged from her building swaying her skintight jean clad hips at him. He must have given her exactly the reaction she was looking for, as she passed, she spun around on her practically stiletto heels.

"Very nice..." He nodded with leering approval. "I feel underdressed."

"You look fine, I'm generally overdressed for Roswell. Come, we go." Maria led him to the car and jumped inside without waiting for him to chivalrously open the door.

They made their way in a comfortable semi-silence as she gave sparse directions and fiddled with the radio dial, radio was also sparse in Roswell, New Mexico.

"It's right over that hill, see where the lights are coming from?" There was a glow in the desert sky ahead of them and Pacey could already feel the pulse of bass-heavy music. Coming up over the road, they saw a world of cars parked on the flat clearing and pulled into a spot.

"Let me open the door for you this time..." He smiled, crossing around to her side of the Jeep. "Gotta let a guy do the right thing every now and again, you know?"

Maria smiled back at him but he had already seen the look of discomfort pass her face.

"What?" he said, following her staring eyes and fallen mouth. He saw nothing there.

"Nothing," she said, and took his outstretched hand, climbing down from the car onto the hard-packed dirt. "Come on, let's get some drinks and have a good time. Alex is already here, there's Isabel and Max's Jeep." Maria pointed a few spots over at the unmanned vehicle putting on a look of faked comfort. Pacey tried to pretend it didn't exist.

He kept her hand in his and she didn't pull it away, although he could feel her slight resistance. He wondered how bad she had it for the Guerin fuck and if there was any way that he was going to make her push it off long enough to maybe get some tonight, figuring that even though this date was probably all about making him jealous, Pacey still saw an attraction between himself and Maria. Right now, that was good enough.

* * * * *

He felt a clap on his back as he waited on line for the keg. Turning, he knew he would find Alex.

"Dude!" 

"Hey man, where's the better half?" Pacey joked, referring to Isabel.

"Oh... Isabel went off with her girlfriends the minute we got here. She's around here somewhere..." The look on his face was sour and sad.

"Sorry, Whitman... Here, suck back a few of these... forget all about that wench." Pacey handed him a blue, plastic cup and put his arm around the other boy's shoulder. Alex pumped the keg and poured another couple of pints.

"Go ahead," he said, indicating in the direction of Maria standing alone, leaning against a post of the large tent. "You're on a date, better keep an eye on her before Michael gets here."

"What's the deal with them? Am I just headed for a fall?"

"Depends on how much you like her, really. I mean, I've known Maria for most of my life and she'd never fallen for anyone like she did for him, but they've been on and off for a long time now. More off lately, though." They wove through the tight crowd towards her. "So I guess you've got a pretty good chance. Who knows? I'm the last person who'll ever understand women."

Pacey nodded towards him, knowing that he was in precisely the same boat. Comprehending girls had never been his strongest suit.

When they reached Maria, she was chatting amicably with Liz and Max. Pacey handed her a plastic pint and said hello. He scanned the crowd, it seemed as if the entire school and more were at this thing. Beyond the tent, lights rotated above the gyrating crowd and a DJ spun records from a high platform, you could feel the steady slamming bass in the pit of your stomach.

"You gonna dance with me, or do I have to find someone else?" Maria leaned into Pacey, whispering into his ear. The hairs on the back of his neck rose.

"I'm not a big dancer, honestly." He dropped his voice to the same husky tone of hers, insuring that she wasn't going to take off on him. From behind her, he saw Guerin make his way through the crowd, same miserable look on his face as ever. Taking her hand into his, he brought his arm around her neck, "But, I'll make as go at it." He lead her away from the tent and to the dancefloor.

She hadn't seen Michael enter, or if she did, she was playing it off rather well. By the time they got into the crowd of dancing bodies, Guerin was over with the rest of the group. Pacey didn't have to look to know he was probably watching the direction they disappeared to. Maria's arm went around his body and her leg between his, she moved smoothly to the rhythm of the pounding music as Pacey attempted to hold his own, trying not to think.

That was the one thing he had learned from his ballroom lessons with Joey back home, stop thinking and counting and let the music lead you. Girls liked a man who could dance, even if it was relatively mediocre.

Her hands traveled downward, settling in the small of his back and she pressed her midsection towards him, their lower halves cemented together and her back arching her away from his chest; a euphoric beam on her face as he held her suspended in the crowd. He pulled her back up to him with a hand on the back of her neck.

"Practice?" He breathed headily into her ear over the voluminous roar.

"Hmmm?"

"You're pretty good at this dancing thing." He smirked at her, mustering up every ounce of sex appeal he could find.

"You ain't so bad yourself..." Her body still moved in time, swaying slowly but perfectly to the beat. Her face glistened in the humidity of hundreds of bodies, her shined lips sparkling and parted. He would kiss her the moment her face neared his again.

She spun around in front of him; her backside forced against his midsection as she bent at the waist and shook her short hair out. If they didn't get off this dancefloor soon, he might have a little episode. This dancing thing didn't seem all that bad, for the first time. Pacey held her hips and tried to move with her. If this was any indication, she was probably a kick-ass lay.

Her back slammed up against his chest and her hands grasped his thighs, ass grinding into him. Wrapping one arm under hers and across her chest he pulled her neck back towards his open mouth and pressed it against his lips, she turned around in his arms. Through the smoke-coated haze, Michael Guerin watched them. Pacey closed his eyes when he kissed her.

* * * * *

"Have fun out there?" Guerin attacked, as they settled in the line at the keg.

"Go away, Michael." Maria glared at him, her hand still on Pacey's around her waist. Pacey just looked at him; no challenge in his eyes, simply looking. There might have been a little smirk on his lips. Maybe.

"Can't do that, Maria. You think I don't know what you're doing out there? This is just a ploy to try and make me jealous. Well, it ain't gonna work." Pacey still held her, ignoring Guerin's pathetic attempt to work him. Maria reacted in kind.

"Think whatever you want, Michael." Her voice dropped. "I'm over you." And she turned away from him into Pacey. They were next in line.

"Can I pour you a beer, Guerin?" He smiled, enjoying the momentary conquest.

"Fuck you." He receded back into the crowd, away from them.

As soon as he was out of sight, Maria turned her attention away from the direction that Michael had disappeared to and back to Pacey. "I take it you're a pretty confident guy, huh?"

"Not particularly, but he's been pissing me off since I got here. Look, it's okay if he knows what he's talking about." Pacey didn't mean that. Honestly, it would be even more annoying if she was really only there to entertain Guerin's jealous streak. He knew that it was at least part of the reason, though.

"Huh?" She took a long sip off her pint, leaving shiny lipstick behind on the rim of her cup.

"Nothing..."

"That's not the reason, but it might have been the bonus byproduct." She paused. "But, it's definitely not why I'm still hanging around you, Pacey." Her fingernails raked up his khaki-covered thighs. "Finish that beer and let's go back and dance again, I don't want to talk about Michael Guerin anymore."

"No arguments there." They wove through the throng until they were head off by Liz, Max and Alex. "Hey, guys."

Alex's eyes were sagged, Pacey figured he was nearing the point of having too much to drink. His voice slurred slightly when he spoke. "What's up?"

"Nothin'... We were going to go dance some more, what are you guys up to?"

"Max and Liz keep trying to ditch me in the crowd so they can go off and do whatever it is that nauseatingly happy couples do at these events, Isabel is dancing with some basketball player out there, and I'm drinking beer. Wanna get another one?" He was definitely on the road to hammered. Maria and Liz were deep in whispered girl-conversation, Pacey bent to her ear and told her he'd be right back.

"Max?" Pacey indicated towards the drink tent.

"No thanks, I'm not a big drinker. Bring one back for Liz, though..." Max stayed tight to his girlfriend's side. Pacey wondered for a moment how long they'd been together, they seemed already married. Scary place for two high school seniors to be.

When they returned with re-filled beverages, Max, Isabel and Michael were deep in hushed speech. Pacey handed Maria and Liz their drinks and stepped behind her, slipping his arm around her thin waist again. She leaned back into his chest. "You wanna get out of here soon? Take a drive or something?"

"You want to leave?" She leaned in and said something he couldn't hear into her friend's ear. "Let's stay a little while longer, is that okay?" She said coming back to him, tipping her head back onto his shoulder.

"Sure." He turned his attention back to Alex and Max while the girl's fell into another conversation. Alex's eyes we're glued to Isabel's lips watching her speak. "Alex, you better slow down if you're at all planning on driving home tonight." Like he should talk.

"I'm all right, this is gonna be my last one." Alex yelled over the din.

Pacey nodded and made the same resolution in his mind. Max and Michael were arguing now, their voices coming louder over the crowd; Pacey couldn't make out what they were saying. Isabel looked torn between the two sides, she kept butting in and speaking heatedly, waving around them. Finally, Michael turned and took off stubbornly, Isabel and Max charged after him. Liz watched them go and started in kind, but Maria held her back.

"What the hell is up with the three of them, it's like drama central?" Pacey inquired with the group.

"Nothing." All three said at once, all too quickly.

"Yeah, right..." He looked at them sidelong and took Maria's hand again. "Whatever... Dance?"

She gazed in the direction that they had run off to. Max, Isabel and Michael were still talking heatedly, not far from where they'd started. Pacey rolled his eyes at Alex. When she brought her head back around to him, she nodded. "Yeah, come on." She took Liz and Alex by the hands as well, "You too... come on. Let's have some friggin' fun for a change. Not everything always has to be so damn serious."

* * * * *

He was glad when she decided it was finally time to get out of there. The party was fun, there was more than enough beer left to go around, but there was always a point when you've had enough. He had had enough. Plus, Maria had gotten him so damn worked up on the dancefloor that he welcomed the chance to get her alone.

"You want me to take you home?" His way of figuring out where they should go. They could go back to his house, but there was a good chance that his father had just gotten home and would be sitting on the couch winding down. The idea of trying to smuggle Maria up the stairs and into his room without incident was not even worth trying, and Jeeps don't exactly have romance written all over them at all.

"Let's say goodnight to Liz and them, I want to make sure that Alex is okay to get home on his own." She pointed in the direction of the chill room, a tent filled with comfy cushions and couches; softer ambient music slowing down the vibe.

"'Kay." This was not going in his favor, he thought. Wiping the sweat from his brow, he followed her inside.

"Hey, you guys. We're gonna take off..." The group was sitting in a cluster, the argument from earlier clearly over. Alex sat with his head tipped back on the couch, Isabel beside him.

"I'm going to drive Alex's car, he can pick it up from our house tomorrow," she assured them, noticing Pacey and Maria's inquisitive expressions.

"Oh, good... Well, catch you guys later... Maria?"

"'Night!" She said towards most of them; then adding, ""Night, Michael," in a more singsong tone of voice. He glared at them both.

Pacey was absolutely not going to let Michael get under his skin, he'd already paid far too much attention to him already. Enough for a fucking lifetime, really. Lifting his arm around Maria's shoulders, he led them out of the tent and to the parked car.

They were alone and it was about time. He closed the door for her and walked around to the driver's side, getting in alongside her. Before he keyed the engine, he turned to look into her eyes. "I had a really good time tonight," he started.

"Me too... And, well... I'm sorry about Michael." She turned her eyes to her lap.

"Forget about Michael, I have..." Pacey reached out and touched his hand to the side of her face, turning it up to him with his thumb.

She opened and closed her mouth, running her tongue quickly over her lips and flexing a muscle in her jaw. Pacey moved in closer, his eyes locked to hers. Their lips met without tension.

She was sexy, no doubt. Pacey ran his hands over her bare shoulders and down her lithe spine, their tongues met and danced more passionately than the two of them had on the dancefloor.

"Nice..." He breathed, his voice saturated with musk.

"My mother's away for the weekend at a trade show." Bingo. That was easy. They untangled from each other's arms and Pacey started the engine. He pulled out of the lot, gravel kicking up behind them as they tore out.

* * *

They had barely made it into her bedroom before he had her pressed against him, remembering back to what it was like to be close to someone for one reason and one reason only. Maria was a nice girl, and maybe they might have something, but right now, Pacey concentrated all his attention on the moment. The rest would have to work itself out after the fact.

He lifted the hem of her shirt and pulled it over her head. "Wait..." She broke away. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she stared into his eyes, filled with base longing. "I don't want you to get the wrong idea about me..."

_Now she decides this?_, he thought to himself briefly before sitting beside her. "Maria, there is no wrong idea," he said honestly. "You're a nice girl, and very sexy... is that the wrong idea?" Bending to kiss her again, he ran his hands gently over her arms, lacing his fingers through hers.

She softened in his embrace and their kissing became more heated, soon their clothes lay in a discarded heap beside the bed. Pacey had felt real passion before, and this wasn't it. There wasn't that feeling of sharing yourself with someone you've fallen madly in love with, or the blazing need to be with this person you've been waiting to touch. There was need and there was passion, but it was empty.

That's not to say that when he slid inside of her he didn't want only to be there. His cock throbbed hard against his body, her long fingers wrapped around it and guiding it to her entrance, their skin slick with sweat; Pacey sighed heavy as her legs encircled him. With her lying beneath him and their lips kissing angrily, they slammed against each other until satisfied.

When it was over, he rolled beside her and promptly fell asleep.

* * *

* * *

To be continued...

**[BACK ][2]**| **NEXT | [BACK TO DC FIC][3] | [BACK TO ROSWELL FIC][4]**

   [1]: mailto:pilar@chickmail.com
   [2]: etranger2.html
   [3]: dcindex.html
   [4]: rwindex.html



	4. L'Étranger

_Disclaimer:_ All right, so here's the deal. Everything Dawson's Creek and Roswell is copyright the WB television network and various other people. Infringement is really, really not intended. Storyline is all mine, backstory is theirs, title is from Albert Camus' book of the same name, I think it fits...

_Rating:_ Bumping this up to an NC-17, it's definitely a smutfest.

_Feedback:_ I want it. I need it. Please [send me your validation][1] or I will shrivel up and die a horrible and miserable death. Whaddaya think?

_Author's Note:_ I've been taking a world of shit for this Pacey/Maria thing, and I wanted to remind some of my readers of something. It's senior year, and Michael & Maria might not have the same relationship as they did at the end of season 1. I don't think that my word is the word of god or any such crap, but hey... allow a gal a little breathing space. Thanks! It's a fic, so welcome to MY world of Roswell and Dawson's Creek, isn't that the whole point of fanfiction? And, tons and tons of thanks to Laura & Kilby for getting me through this installment, gotta love the ladies.

* * *

* * *

Part 4   
**A Dawson's Creek/Roswell Crossover Event**

* * *

Waking, Pacey felt the hot sun burning into his back and an emptiness in the bed beside him. He turned onto his back and found her standing in the mirror getting dressed; his head was heavy.

"Morning, Pacey..." Maria's reflection smiled back at him as she swept her hair into small barrettes. "Do you want some coffee? I made some earlier..."

He sat up in the bed, still incapable of coherent speech. "Shower?" The pelting water would force him into alertness. Maria approached the bed and took him by the hand, leading him into the bathroom. He caught his own reflection in the cabinet mirror, smirking at the state of himself. His hair stood up in messed spikes and his eyes were red bloodshot.

But, he had a hard-on. That had to be a good sign, meant he was actually still alive. He rolled Maria into his arms and nipped at her neck. "Care to join me?"

"Mmmmm... I really have to get ready for work, I'm picking up Liz's brunch shift today." She attempted to wriggle out from his naked embrace. "You go ahead."

"I'll be lonely...," he pouted, pulling her towards him again. "What time do you have to be there?"

"Eleven."

"Then we have plenty of time..." He reached into the bath and turned on the faucet; Maria stood before him, fully dressed in her Crashdown uniform. Maybe that was what was getting him so hot? There was something about the mint green and silver that held him captivated. He needed to see it immediately against the porcelain tiles.

Maria was an easy convince. Pacey tore at her front snaps and pushed the cheap polyester from her body, easing it over her shoulders until it dropped to the floor. He went for her hair things next, gingerly pulling them from the blonde bob and placing them neatly on the edge of the sink. Her hands lingered in the air over his chest, nipples pricking towards him as he reached around and released her from her bra.

He stepped under the warm needles of the shower, pulling her alongside him and pressing her back against the cold tiles, wasting no time before slamming inside her. His mouth plundered hers, teeth clicking against each other, the water drowning out the mingled sounds of his growls and her moans. He held her onto him with her legs wrapped around his waist, the wall behind her as leverage; she screamed into his open mouth, the sound disappearing into his lungs.

He thrust into her harder and faster staring into her closed shut eyes until his turned black, pulling out and spilling himself onto the slick bathtub floor and easing Maria onto her feet. Covering her lips again with his own, he released her. "Now, you can get ready for work..." he breathed.

* * *

The Jeep pulled up to the curb in front of The Crashdown and Pacey stepped around to open the door for Maria's exit. The diner was overflowing with customers. She looked over his shoulder at the crowd and sighed heavily. "Ugh... Work."

"Looks packed, is it always like this on the weekends?" He scanned the groups of people clustered in front waiting for tables.

"Yeah... are you hungry? I could slide you in at the counter, I have pull, you know..."

"Mmmm... starving..." He dropped his lips to hers and kissed her rapaciously, releasing her from his hold and following her through the glass door.

"Stay right here, I'll get you a seat in a second." She waved to the waitress already on duty and walked quickly into the back swinging her hips. "I'll be on the floor in a second!" She called out to her co-worker before disappearing through the kitchen door.

Pacey waited patiently as a customer rifled through his wallet to pay the check. The man was barely out of his seat before Pacey slid into the vacant spot, turning his head towards the direction that she had gone off to. All he caught was the deep glare of Michael Guerin from behind the kitchen window, staring at him as he flipped burgers on the grill. Pacey smiled as Maria re-entered the room.

"What can I get ya, sweetheart?" She lilted in a mock-southern accent. "You look like a very hungry man who's had every ounce of his energy depleted..."

"Maria! Table sixteen's been waiting forever!" Came Guerin's roar from the back, he waved a spatula at her. She didn't even turn towards the sound, instead pulling out her order book and taking down Pacey's order.

"Just ignore him, he's an ass." Maria sent an icy stare in Guerin's direction then leaned down and pecked Pacey on the top of the head before heading off to flit busily from table to table.

Pacey was going to need a job soon, all this working reminded him.

Each time that Maria would put an order up at the kitchen, Guerin would scowl or otherwise berate her. Pacey watched half-amused. The guy was a truly miserable human being, walking around as if there were a potato chip in his ass that he was afraid would break. It seemed that Maria was doing her best to ignore him though, the packed restaurant taking up the majority of her thoughts.

Michael delivered his food himself, dropping it in front of Pacey with a clang of china on Formica. He propped himself with his elbow on the counter, the hot sweat and grease odor permeating the air around him. Leaning close, he growled into Pacey's ear.

"Better keep your strength up." He stared Pacey down and backed away.

Pacey watched him walk back to the kitchen really not bothered by the show of territory, Michael was simply attempting to piss on what he thought was his. Clearly, he had another thing coming. Whatever. He dug into his food voraciously, putting all of the insipid drama out of his mind and concentrating on the full plate in front of him.

When Maria next crossed his path, he laid down his fork and reached out to her. "Hey, I'm gonna cut out in a minute..." He pulled her towards him. "What are you doing later?"

"You don't tire out, do you?" She giggled lightly. "I'm supposed to do girl things with Liz and Isabel, but I can probably blow them off. Pick me up back here at eight?"

"You got it." He dropped some cash onto the counter and slipped his arm around Maria's waist, catching a look from the burger boy and smirking back at him with a coy, little wink. He kissed her quickly and moved towards the door and his waiting Jeep.

Driving home, Pacey thought for the first time that it might not be so awful having to spend the rest of the year in Roswell. Most of his days so far had been spent waxing melancholic about the eastern seaboard, missing his old bedroom for whatever it was worth, or getting otherwise nostalgic about Capeside High and his faraway group of friends. He even missed his mediocre job at Screenplay.

But, things were looking decidedly up. His classes had turned out to be relatively easy, he'd met at least one guy to hang out with, even if he was a bit of a bonehead, and he'd hooked up with a decent chick who actually put out. If you left out all of the weirdness in the air around him, he actually might even be able to say he was doing better than he did back home.

It wasn't really all that hard.

* * *

"Pacey? Is that you?" His mother's voice called out through the house, she was in the kitchen.

"Yeah, Mom..." He followed the sound to where she stood, scrubbing an already pristine tabletop.

"My god, I've been so worried about you... Where have you been? Oh, you really should have called. If your father wasn't the Sheriff, I would have called the police by now!"

Pacey was floored. Never had his parents put the slightest thought into his whereabouts; he had spent days sleeping on Dawson's floor without word one from them and they had never once inquired after him. The thought hadn't even crossed his mind to call home.

He looked at her quizzically. "I'm sorry, Ma. I spent the night at a friend's. Pop's not out looking for me or anything like that, right?" That was the last thing he needed, his father scouring the streets for his punk ass.

She sat down at the kitchen table, finally tossing the sponge into the sink. "I'm sorry, honey, I know I'm overreacting, your father's said the same. It's just that ever since... well... your brother died, I can't help but feel like my children are slipping away. Your sisters are all gone, Doug... Pacey, you're all I have left..." There were tears in his mother's eyes.

He felt bad for her, really he did. But, he couldn't help but feel like the second choice in his parents' affections. Doug was gone and suddenly they gave a shit? "Too little, too late," came to mind, but he shoved it back inside. He put his arm around her shoulder, never wanting to see his mother upset, he did love her no matter how hands-off she had been in the past.

"I'm sorry, Ma. I'll call the next time and let you know I'm okay... Look, I'm still really tired and I'm going out later, so I'm gonna go upstairs and take a nap, okay?"

"Go ahead, honey... do you want me to wake you up for dinner?"

"Sure. Thanks, Mom." He took the stairs up to his room two at a time. Lying back, he pulled his shirt off over his head and sank into the pillows. 

* * *

This had to be a dream. Pacey lay in the middle of the desert, nude in a dune of soft sand that felt like talc under his fingers. The sun blazed onto his body, but he didn't feel its heat, blinded by the rays lasering into his eyes. He closed them slowly and sank deeper into the sand.

A shadow covered him, shading his eyes from the searing sun, a silhouette he couldn't place, a halo of long hair on a tall, full-figured form. He felt hands on his body but wasn't being touched. He heard his name on the wind.

Blinking back the sun, he tried to adjust his eyes but still couldn't see. When his hands reached out to where the figure stood, he felt nothing and extended further. The figure backed away without moving.

Pacey felt as if his body was locked to one spot. He tried to sit, but was tethered to the ground by invisible ropes at his ankles and chest. Fear spread through him, an anxiousness that held him captive like the twine. Opening his mouth, he couldn't scream.

"You're fine, stop fighting." Isabel's voice.

Pacey's mind spun like a leaf caught up in a hard breeze. He knew that he was sleeping, but it all felt so real. Too lucid to be simply dreaming, too incoherent to be awake. Long fingers tangled in his hair, pulling and twisting; he thought he might cry out if he could. The figure knelt beside him and the sky turned dark.

The breath returned to his lungs in a gust.

"What's going on? Where are we?" He spoke to Isabel even though it seemed he was alone.

"This is your dream, a figment of your imagination. You are wherever you want to be."

"Oblique much?"

There was no motion around him, not from his own body and not from the air. The figure was gone but its voice still remained.

"Tell me what you're doing here." Its tone was stern and Pacey felt the fear returning; a twist in his gut, deep inside him, tight as the restraints that held him hard against the sand. His fingers dug into it going nowhere. 

"I don't know, I was sleeping."

"You're still sleeping." A breeze warm around him, caressing him slowly without hands. He felt his body responding to the light touch and he urged himself against it. There was an icy pain in his chest, this shaky feeling of both fear and arousal, or arousal from fear. Pacey tried to brush it off, but felt his temperature rising and the ache in the pit of his stomach becoming wider and all encompassing. "Why are you in Roswell and what do you want with us?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" He was getting angry. He tried to move his arms, but even they were locked down at his sides now. He began to fight against them, raging against the pain of the ropes he couldn't see burning into his limbs. They seared as he fought them, his mind getting more and more anxious, his body betraying him. Straining against them, he sat up in a bolt.

He was in his bedroom, blankets wrestled onto the floor and a tree wracking against the closed window calling his name.

* * *

After dinner, Pacey got into the shower. The unsettled feeling after his nap wouldn't go away, his stomach fought him to keep the food down. It was almost eight and he needed to get out of his house, but the water felt good on his skin; liberating.

He pulled himself together, leaving his house with still-wet hair that would dry in the wind. The streets were mostly dark, small lamps illuminating the sidewalks and storefronts bright calling patrons in from the street. Pacey eased into a parking spot in front of the Crashdown and waited for her.

When she waved at him from the window, urging him to come inside, he shook his head in the negative, beckoning her out to him. She waved him in again.

"Pacey, come inside..." She unlocked the door and stuck her head out to call to him.

"Fine..." There was something hanging in the air above him, he felt. A lingering feeling that refused to dissipate. He wanted to get as far away from it as he could, except that it was inside his mind. He couldn't run away from his own mind. Smiling, he hoisted himself over the doorframe and met Maria at the door.

"I'll be ready in a few minutes, it's taking longer to get out of here than usual. Come, have a soda with Liz, Max and Isabel." She grinned and took his hand, leading him to the only occupied booth.

_Isabel..._ That was what was hanging over him. As soon as he heard her name he remembered her voice in his dream; angry and impatient. Sitting beside Liz in the booth, she smirked at him without saying a word.

"Hey, Pacey... You guys have a nice time last night?" Liz inquired innocently.

"Great, actually... How about you? Didn't see you out on the dancefloor much."

Max laughed. "You couldn't have seen anything past yourself out there last night, the way you two were dancing."

Arms encircled his neck from behind. "Pacey's a pretty good dancer, I wouldn't knock him, Max. He looks better than you do out there." Maria traced Pacey's jawbone with a finger and flitted away again to finish sweeping up.

Isabel's eyes burned into him, he couldn't imagine how everyone else didn't notice, how Maria didn't notice immediately. Pacey rested his elbows on the table and leaned forward, towards her. "I had the strangest dream earlier, and I swear you were in it."

"Oh?" She looked innocently towards her brother who was glaring at her with piercing eyes. These two were complete freaks.

"Yeah, I was out on the desert and you were asking me questions that I had no answer for. It was bizarre, of almost nightmare proportions."

"Hmmmm... that's too bad." That smirk again.

"Okay, ready! I just have to change out of this thing..." Maria hopped over to the table and pulled Pacey by the shoulder. "What are you guys doing? Pacey and I don't really have plans, do we?"

"Not really... figured we could just hang out. Unless you have other ideas?"

"We're going to go see a movie. Did you bring the paper, Max?" The couple started paging through the newspaper. Isabel moved in closer to Pacey.

"Tell me more about this dream of yours... what was I wearing?" Michael emerged from the back room and approached the table.

"I never did really see you, that's the thing... it was weird. I was out in the desert, and you were there, but you weren't really there. And it was super hot, or something... I don't know, really." Pacey felt strange trying to make any sense of it all, it sounded even lamer coming out of his mouth. "The thing I remember most is that you were angry, and I was..."

"You. Backroom. Now." Michael grabbed at Isabel's elbow and led her forcefully past the door.

"The fuck?" Pacey stared after them, mostly ignored by everyone else at the table. He stared at the closed door until Maria returned. Out of her uniform, she wore a silky magenta skirt and skintight burgundy top; Pacey's mind quickly switched to more important things, like the fact that there was no way she was wearing a bra under there.

"What's up with them? Izzy & Michael are just about to kill each other back there..."

"Dunno. Maybe she's trying to dislodge the stick up his ass and he's resistant." No one laughed.

"What do you say, Pace? Movie? Or should we just get out of here and take a drive?" She snaked her arms around his neck again and he tipped his head back to look into her eyes.

"I'm voting for the drive..."

"We'll catch you guys later... I clocked out, Liz, but if you need Michael to lock up I'm sure he can. Have a good night!" Maria took Pacey's hand and pulled him out of the booth.

"Night, kids. Be good!" Max was decent guy when he wasn't being so quiet, he might even be able to be considered normal if he wasn't so weirdly uptight. Pacey knew that Michael was his best friend, and it was almost strange that he didn't seem to care whether Pacey dated his ex-girlfriend. That was pretty stand-up, in Pacey's eyes. But, then there were the bizarre looks and hushed tones that generally pervaded.

Whatever, it wasn't as if these were the only people Pacey would get to know in this town. They were just the first.

* * *

He snapped the door closed behind Maria and she leaned back in the passenger seat, her feet in high-heeled slides on the dashboard. The skirt she wore slipped up her thighs and before turning the key in the ignition, he reached out to scratch his nails over the bare flesh.

"You look great..."

"Oh?" She turned towards him and licked her gloss-covered lips, her leg pressing into his hand, which he eased further up her thigh. "Where do you want to go, Pacey?"

"Hmm? Oh, go? You're the native, you tell me..." He had been lost in an anticipatory haze for a moment. "Does it ever cool off out here, or is it always this hot?" He asked, not intending the double entendre.

"It's always this hot, but the weather cools down." She leaned forward to fiddle with the radio dials, her legs spreading just slightly in invitation. "Drive out away from town, I have an idea of how to cool you down." Smiling wickedly, she pressed back into the seat. Pacey's hand lay on the elastic edge of her panties and he traced it slowly with the tip of his finger, teasing her. He scraped a nail over the center and her legs opened instinctively, her head threw back and her lips parted. He drove.

In minutes, they were on a dark road lined with nothing but desert and brush. Pacey's fingers danced teasingly over her crotch, feeling the moist heat radiating off her. Moving away, he downshifted then returned his hand. Her breath coming in ragged gasps, she looked at him and barely uttered, "Make a right up there."

Saying nothing, he slid his finger just into the edge of her underwear, brushing against her swollen lips as her mouth fell open and her body reached out towards him. The moisture slicked around his finger as he slid into her. "Next left," she said in a moan, her eyes wide.

It was difficult to drive with his cock raging painfully behind his zipper. She motioned for him to pull over under a small grove of woods and he was relieved. The moment the engine stopped, he lunged for her. Never releasing her from his grasp, he pushed the flimsy material that had kept him from her aside and used his other hand to push her seat all the way back. The Jeep had never been a good place for action.

Beautifully exposed, the moon glistened off her dewy skin.

Kneeling as best he could on the floor of the Jeep, she pushed him away with a hand and opened the door. Her face was flushed. "Follow me..." How she could walk was beyond him.

Maria slipped into the woods, parting the bushes that stood between them. He did as he was told, as if he had any choice in the matter whatsoever.

Through the brush and trees was a dark reservoir; black water reflecting in the twilight. She stood on the rocky bank and bent over to remove her panties from under her skirt, tossing them towards him. Then, crossing her arms over her chest, she pulled the tank over her head and dropped it at her feet. Pacey stood motionless feet away, watching.

"Are you coming in, or what?"

"Thought I'd watch you first..." His entire body was one shaky, raging hormone. Maria took a few steps towards him.

"You can watch later, participate now." She moved closer and began to pull his shirt up over his chest, trailing her fingers softly over his tender skin. His hands went to the waistband of her skirt and she turned around in his arms walking away, teasing him. He discarded his shirt on a pile of rocks and his pants a few feet away. The closer he got to her, the further away she moved.

The water lapped against the rock sides quietly, almost completely still in the windless night.

She slipped the skirt off her hips and stood just feet away nude in the moonlight, burgundy patent slides still on her feet; she turned on her heels and kicked them off behind her, slipping into the pitch reservoir and diving under.

By the time she came up for air, he was directly beside her. Her fingers scratched at his thighs and he pulled her against him, their bodies slick in the clear water. He reached between her legs and slid inside her pushing her against the rocky side of the pool, eager to bring her back to the point where she was in the car.

Lifting her weightlessly out of the water, Pacey eased her onto the side and found stable rock to stand on. She rested on her hands behind her, looking down at Pacey, the water rolling off her skin in long rivulets that shone in the twinkle of the sky. He touched her lightly, running his hands over her legs and parting her knees, sliding his fingers deep inside her as she let out a long, guttural sigh.

He nipped his teeth at the insides of her thighs, the rock at the perfect height for him. Bringing her body closer to his, he watched her face change as he breathed hot over her center, his fingers still easing in and out of her slowly. And then out of her. He replaced them with his lips. Maria's body tensed as his tongue found her clit and he pressed against it, circling then retreating to the cleft of her sex. His hands went around her body, grasping at her backside holding her to his face as he brought her closer and closer to the edge without allowing her over it. Her cries echoed against the towering rock mesas.

As his tongue penetrated her, she pulled him into her, her fingers tangled and twisted through his hair until she screamed his name. Pacey ran figure eights over her as she crossed the line, he pulled her back down into the water, her back pressed hard to the limestone as he slid into her finally. Finally.

Maria's body was still warm as she wrapped her legs around his waist and he pumped into her slowly, teasing her with his length and retreating again. Their lips met and they kissed for the first time since that morning he realized, as his tongue entered her mouth and he slid it along its roof; his pace quickened inside her and her arms wrapped around his neck.

Her soft lips attacked him; strength in the face of such tenderness. He plowed into her, he couldn't help himself, rocking his body into hers with a gentle force that showed no mercy for either of them. His closed eyes with nothing but darkness behind them and the sound of splashes against them; he came in a bubbling volcano between her legs. Roswell would swallow his come with their drinking water that night.

He kissed her again and slid out onto the rock pulling her up to lay beside him on the rocks.

"Did that cool you off?" She said, slipping her hand between his legs.

"For now." Pacey raised an eyebrow at her and rested his head on her chest her heartbeat slowing under his ears. He wanted to be able to talk to her like he would be able to with Joey, but words never came out of sexual context. It was entirely possible that they would never have anything to say at all. He kept his mouth shut and let his hands do the talking, running gently over the length of her legs as he closed his eyes and allowed his mind to go blank.

* * *

There was a message from Joey on his pillow when he returned home. In his mother's hand, it read:

_Joey called.  
She asks, "Want company?" and says to call her ASAP._

Pacey looked at his watch. Sure, it was far too late to call her and he'd probably hear about it for years to come, but he found himself dialing nonetheless. Screw it, she couldn't just leave a message like that and expect him not to wake her ass up.

The phone rang a few times and he heard the handset rattle off the cradle and onto Joey's nightstand, she answered in a muffled voice, no words other than "Mmmm?"

"I'd love some company, you bringing the beer?"

"Pacey? Pacey! You got my message!" She seemed to wake up quickly.

"I did. Pretty damn oblique, I might add..." He laughed.

"And then you decided to call and wake my whole house up at... 4am! Pacey, it could have waited until the _real_ morning, you know..."

"I couldn't help myself, Jo. Are you really thinking about coming out for a visit?" The idea of it sent him reeling. In Pacey's mind, it had been like he would never see any of his friends again, intermittent phone calls were hardly enough.

"Yeah, actually... How does in a week grab you? There's a stupid senior class field trip that I really don't want to go to and I'd already saved up the money for it, but it doesn't sound like all that much fun. Plus, I miss you, you bastard. Can I come out and stay with you? I already passed it by your mom and she was okay with it..."

"Well, it seems like you've already gotten it all worked out, so why not? Man, Jo... It'll be amazing to see you, I've missed you too, you know..." Would dancing around the room be totally out of order?

"I know you have. So, I'm gonna book a flight tomorrow. When I wake up. Again. I'll call you when I have the arrangements, okay. And Pacey? Get your own beer..."

"For you, baby... Anything. OK, I'll talk to you tomorrow, go back to sleep."

"Tell Alex that. Night, Pace..." The phone clicked off on the other end and Pacey replaced the handset on the nightstand.

* * *

* * *

To be continued...

**[BACK ][2]**| **NEXT | [BACK TO DC FIC][3] | [BACK TO ROSWELL FIC][4]**

   [1]: mailto:pilar@chickmail.com
   [2]: etranger3.html
   [3]: dcindex.html
   [4]: rwindex.html



	5. L'Étranger

_Disclaimer:_ All right, so here's the deal. Everything Dawson's Creek and Roswell is copyright the WB television network and various other people. Infringement is really, really not intended. Storyline is all mine, backstory is theirs, title is from Albert Camus' book of the same name, I think it fits...

_Rating:_ Bumping this up to an NC-17, it's definitely a smutfest.

_Feedback:_ I want it. I need it. Please [send me your validation][1] or I will shrivel up and die a horrible and miserable death. Whaddaya think?

_Author's Note:_ I've been taking a world of shit for this Pacey/Maria thing, and I wanted to remind some of my readers of something. It's senior year, and Michael & Maria might not have the same relationship as they did at the end of season 1. I don't think that my word is the word of god or any such crap, but hey... allow a gal a little breathing space. Thanks! It's a fic, so welcome to MY world of Roswell and Dawson's Creek, isn't that the whole point of fanfiction?/font>

* * *

* * *

Part 5   
**A Dawson's Creek/Roswell Crossover Event**

* * *

"As much as I'd like to snuggle in for another few hours, I've got to get to the airport soon..." Pacey threw his leg over Maria's nude body beside him, dragging his hand over her flat stomach.

They had already spent most of the lazy Sunday afternoon in his bed, the sun streaming through the slats of the blinds and the sound of the television muddling their voices to the rest of the house.

"Mmmmm... what time does the flight come in?" She ground herself closer to him, taking his hand and laying it on her breast. "You must have another hour... don't you?"

He turned his eyes to the digital clock on his desk. "Not really... Joey gets in at four and it's three... and I really should have a shower, you know?"

Maria pouted and he kissed her, licking at her lips with the tip of his tongue. "Fine, Pacey. Be that way."

"You're insatiable, DeLuca. You're gonna have to get over that eventually. A guy's only got so much to give." He laughed and tossed her bra at her from the pile on the floor.

"You're not even going to let me shower with you? Jeez, Pacey... it _is_ the least you can do before kicking me out, you know."

"Nope, I'm going to send you out into the harsh light of day just as you are. You're fine, just the way you are..." He kissed her again, letting his tongue slip into her mouth and wanting to drag her into the bathroom with him. He couldn't really, he needed to get her out of his mind for a moment, to clear his head before he set off to the airport. "Now go, before I change my mind."

"Ahhhh... She does have the power over him, doesn't she."

"Yes, she does. Now get the hell out of here before I'm late to the airport." Pacey began backing into the bathroom as Maria bent for the rest of her clothes.

"How long is your friend coming to stay for?"

"Only a week, she's leaving next Sunday evening." He said finally behind the door and reaching to turn on the shower.

"She?" The door flew open and Maria stood in the doorway, hands on her hips.

Was that jealousy he saw creeping across her brow? "Ooo, I like you jealous, Maria."

"I'm not jealous, please. But you never told me that "your friend, Joey" was a girl. I guess I'm just a little surprised..." Her face softened and she stared at his bare midsection. "Oh, you do like to think I'm jealous though, don't you?" She let out a small giggle in reaction to his burgeoning erection.

"What can I say?" He grinned sheepishly.

"That you're going to be late to the airport..."

"I think I might be a little late..." He pulled her clothes off her and tugged her into the shower after him. At least, this way, he'd get his hair cleaned at the same time.

* * *

He was late and Joey was going to be hella pissed off. It was bad enough that he took his time leaving the house, but getting lost on his way to the airport just set him back far too long. Looking down at the clock on his dash, he realized he should have been there an hour ago.

But, then, anyone could have missed this pathetic excuse for an airport.

But nobody could miss an angry Joey Potter standing outside the main terminal, suitcase beside her, her face twisted in an annoyed scowl.

"So this is how you treat visiting guests, Witter? I had to fly across the friggin' United States sandwiched between The Grimace and a wailing three-year-old, sit around for two hours in a Jose Cuervo tequila themed restaurant in Denver, just to get on the teeniest, scariest plane ever, and then, **then,** stand here and wait for you like a damned fool for over an hour!" She railed on him mercilessly, waving her hands like a mad woman.

Pacey inched close enough to pick up her bag, smiling regrettably at her and tossing her suitcase into the back of his Jeep. "I'm sorry, Jo... Forgive me?"

"Like I have a choice?" She slid into the passenger seat and shed a layer of clothes revealing a tight men's tank top. "Although, I guess in this weather I could always sleep in your backyard." She flashed him the patented crooked smile and he knew everything would be fine.

"I suppose you could, but then you'd miss out on my mother's finely decorated guest room. She's made it all up for you, I think she's more excited than I am for your arrival."

"You wound me, Pacey. Don't you have anything nice to say to one of your best friends ever?" She nudged him lightly in the ribs.

"I've really missed you, Potter. C'mere and gimme a hug." Ignoring the gear shift jutting into his hip, he leaned closer and rounded his arms around her shoulders.

She laid her head on his shoulder and squeezed back. "I've missed you too..." The moment got awkward and she wriggled from his grasp. "Now drive me back to your house, I've been travelling all day and I want to get out of these clothes and eat something."

"As you wish, your highness." He pulled the stick into gear and took off towards town.

Thankfully, getting back home, he didn't make the same wrong turns. He pointed out various Roswell landmarks that he could remember the names of and some that he couldn't, keeping Joey entertained through the short drive. Nearing his house, he pulled into the driveway and cut the engine.

"And here you go. Mi casa."

It was a small house, nothing like the house that he grew up in back in Capeside. She looked it over approvingly, noticing the perfectly manicured lawn and waving American flag hanging off the side.

"I see your father's in charge of the grounds," she smiled.

"Damn right, Sheriff Witter keeps the place well taken care of. You should see him out there, Jo, it's like he's never had a lawn before." Pacey carried her bag to the front door and pushed open the door. "Mom? We're back from the airport..." He called out through the house.

Pacey's mother emerged from the kitchen smiling and holding out her arms. "Joey! Welcome to Roswell!" Her verve was a little overwhelming, but he understood. His mother just wasn't used to going out and making friends, she'd done little more than putter around the house for weeks.

"Thank you, Mrs. Witter. I would have been here earlier, but Pacey left me hanging at the airport."

"Dude! I thought we were past that, besides, I got lost... Anyway, I got you here, didn't I?" Joey winked at his mother and moved into give her a light hug.

"Joey, Pacey will bring your things to the guest room, I've made it up for you. There are clean towels if you want to shower and I made some fried chicken. You must be hungry after one of those horrible in-flight meals... Do you want to eat first?"

Joey smiled warmly and nodded. "I'm starving, actually. Thank you so much for having me, Mrs. Witter."

"Oh, darling, we're so pleased that you've come to visit... it's our pleasure." As much as every word was true, Pacey thought gravely that his mother really needed to get out more. She was becoming June Cleaver as the days went by. "Come into the kitchen, dear. Pacey, why don't you drop off Joey's bag and come as well."

"All right, Mom."

When he entered the kitchen Joey and his mother were deep in conversation about the new house and new town. He sat back in the chair beside Joey and served himself.

She went to sleep early, jet-lagged and tired and possibly wrapped in one of the huge towels that were stacked on a chair in her room. They would catch up in the morning. Pacey lay in the room next to hers and could swear he could hear her breathing. It was that good to have her around, just seeing her angry and annoyed at the curb was enough to bring back all sorts of feelings he never really realized that he'd had.

* * *

Lying in his bed, the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hey..." Came a soft voice. "Just wanted to see if you made it to the airport okay and if your friend got in all right."

"You are jealous, I knew it!" He laughed, shifting into a more comfortable position.

"You flatter yourself, Pacey. I'm just checking my investments." Her voice was like a smooth purr on the other end of the line.

"Oh?" Yeah, well, two can play at that game, he thought.

"Yeah... So what did you and the little lady do tonight?"

"Nothing really. Because of you and your _investments,_ I had to catch a heap of shit for being an hour late to the airport. We got back here, my mother fed her, we talked for about an hour, she took a shower and fell promptly to sleep on me."

"On you? Sounds dirty..." That hushed purr in her voice again. "You want to come over?"

As much as the idea appealed to him, he knew he should keep his dick in his pants for a day or two. Especially after the way he had been thinking about Joey just minutes before the phone rang. But then, he was kind of seeing Maria these days and Joey would understand that. She didn't come to Roswell with any expectations. They were friends and they always had been.

He shook his head slowly, as if she might be able to see that on the other end of a phone line.

"I shouldn't, Maria... Not tonight."

"Oh, bummer... And I had something I wanted to show you..."

"What's that?" He played along against his better judgement.

"Nothing that won't keep... I'll see you tomorrow in school?"

Shit. He'd forgotten that he had to be in school tomorrow. He mentally went over his classes. Nope, no tests or anything particularly pressing, he could cut a day. Spend it with Joey, catching up and showing her some of the sights. "I'm gonna take tomorrow off, but how about we meet at The Crashdown after school? I want to introduce you." He winced at his last words, wondering if this was a good move, considering.

"All right, Pacey... I'm working, anyway." He sensed the teeniest bit of irritation in her voice.

"Grrrowllll... you know how I love that uniform..." He said, reassuring them both.

For the moment.

"Goodnight, Pacey..."

"'Night, doll... See you tomorrow." He hung the phone up more confused than he had been before he picked it up.

* * *

Like a shot, he sat up in bed, his skin drenched in sweat and his body shaking. He'd had the dream again.

It wasn't exactly the same. It had started out as one of those hyper-real dreams where it almost feels like a normal daily event. Pacey was sitting alone in a booth at the Crashdown Cafe watching Maria run about taking orders and delivering plates of food, Michael watched him from behind the counter muttering to himself about some bullshit. Joey entered the cafe and joined him at the table.

Then it changed.

Suddenly, Joey wasn't Joey anymore. And Maria wasn't Maria. Everyone was Isabel.

She approached the table wearing one of those ridiculous antennae headbands and holding an order pad. "What do you want?" She said viciously. He looked towards the Isabel in Joey's clothes and her eyes pierced back at him.

"Tell her what you want." Joey-Isabel told him soberly, nodding slowly.

"I don't know. This is crazy." In his dream, everything around him turned red and the air grew warmer. It was as if he was looking at everything through a colored gel.

"We'll find out eventually, you know."

He got a flash of Michael in the back of his dream head, leaning close. "Better keep your strength up."

And then he was awake, wondering why he was so scared. This dream shit was getting out of fucking hand. And it was 5am.

* * *

Joey stirred in the house, Pacey could hear her footsteps in the guest room and through the hall to the bathroom. He had been lying in his bed for near an hour not able to fall back asleep. Sitting up in bed, he decided that since she was up, he might as well be. Throwing on a pair of sweatpants over his boxers, he walked out to the kitchen.

Down the hall, the shower turned on.

When he heard the water stop, he walked over to the end of the hall and held out a steaming cup of coffee, perfectly timed.

"Hey," he whispered. "I made coffee."

"I didn't wake you, did I?" Joey approached quietly. "I tried to be super-quiet."

"Nah, I had a strange dream earlier and was having problems getting back to sleep. When I heard you get up, I just figured I may as well get out of bed too. So you want this coffee, or what?" Pacey nodded at her to follow him to the kitchen as she took the mug from his hand.

She looked great, her hair dipping wet and slicked back off her face, skin scrubbed clean. She wore a grey and red Japanese-style robe cinched at the waist. Sitting down at the kitchen table, she shoved a foot underneath her body and leaned close to him.

"Pacey... I'm so glad that I came out here, Capeside just hasn't been the same without you."

"I'm glad you're out here too, Potter. I took the day off from school today so we could hang out and catch up."

She smiled and took another long gulp off her coffee, finishing the cup and standing to refill it from the carafe behind them. "Thanks, Pacey. And here I was trying to scheme up ways to borrow your car for the day while you were out." Her eyes gleamed in the bright, morning sun.

"It wouldn't have worked, you know how I am about my automobile." He winked at her, grinning widely. "Besides, there was no way I was going to leave you to your own devices in alien-town. And since we hardly got to spend any time together last night, I feel like you just got here. So tell me something good, tell me about home. There's got to be some good dirt going on..."

She refilled his cup as well, and returned to her seat, leaning back comfortably. There was a little bit more skin showing through her robe than she knew about and he gazed at her affectionately, appraising the space between her breasts down to almost her navel.

Noticing his leer, she looked down herself and then back to his eyes.

"Hey, perv-boy, up here." She snapped her fingers in front of her face, laughing quietly. The rest of the Witter family hadn't begun to stir yet.

"Then cover yourself up, slutcakes. You can't fault a guy for getting an eyeful if you're showing it off." He moved his eyes from hers, down her body and back up to meet them again, raising an eyebrow as she didn't move to close her robe.

"All right, enough of this... You wanna know what's been going on back home, or what?" Her robe remained open. Good to know that the sexual tension between them and their subsequent flirtatious behavior hadn't been lost in cross-country travel.

"Yeah, gimme the goods."

"Well, everything is exactly the same, for the most part. I'm still working at the Yacht Club, Dawson's still with Nikki and I think they're going to get married or something -- it's kind of gross how "together" they are." She gestured in quotation marks. "Ummmm, Jack has a new, and exceptionally cute, boyfriend who goes to CCC, Andie's freaking out about colleges, and Jen has been seeing Chris Wolfe off and on, again. That about sums it all up." She took a deep breath after her ramble.

"You could have given me that over the phone... Now, what's really up?"

"Whaddaya mean?"

"Well, you left one person suspiciously out of your round-up, one Miss Josephine Potter? What's been going on with her that would make her fly across the country to visit me?" He leaned over and closed the open space of her robe, he was getting far too preoccupied with that stripe of skin.

"Nothing too exciting, actually. And definitely nothing special. Which is precisely why she decided to fly across the country to visit you."

"Oh, come on, Jo. There must be something going on? It's not like Roswell is the tourist spot of the West, unless you're suddenly into UFO sightings, that is." He was determined to get something out of her.

"I've really missed you, Pace. Not because of what happened between us before you left... although that was very nice, but... I mean, it's everything. Without you around, I feel like I have no one that close to me anymore. Dawson's too wrapped up in Nikki, which is great and all, but... And you're not there. So, I'm all alone. And I guess I've just been really lonely."

He knew what she meant. All too well, honestly.

Rounding the table, he sat in the chair beside her and threw his arms around her shoulders hugging her tightly. "Damn, Jo. I know how you feel." He didn't let go and felt her head drop to his shoulder and her warm breath on his neck.

He wanted to turn his head and kiss her, to slide his tongue between her lips and open her mouth to his. But, he didn't. It wasn't right to presume that she meant anything sexual by any of this and it would be taking advantage of the closeness they shared to assume otherwise.

And besides, damnit, he was seeing someone. For whatever that was worth. At some point he was going to have to mention Maria to Joey.

Still, neither of them broke the contact between them and there was nothing awkward about the moment. He felt comfortable holding onto her; his hand on the back of her head tangled in her wet hair, her lips so close to his throat. Finally, he dropped his hand down her back and pulled away gently.

"You want me to make breakfast?"

"Sure, I am kinda hungry. Whatcha got?"

Pacey stood at the refrigerator and rattled off its contents, pulling a few key things out as she agreed and disagreed with his menu. They finally decided on a quick load of scrambled eggs and sausage and she rose to dress while he got it all together.

Minutes later, his mother found him singing to himself in front of the stove.

"Oh, Pacey, I would have made breakfast. What are you even doing up this early?" She immediately started cleaning up behind him, wiping down the counter around his mess.

"It's okay, Mom. I heard Jo get up a while ago and made some coffee, we've been up for a bit. She's still on East Coast time. Should I make breakfast for you and Pop, too?" He started to pull out the egg carton from the fridge again.

"No thank you, darling. You know how particular your father is about his breakfast. You just finish up for yourself and I'll sneak in after you. Your father is just getting in the shower anyway. But I will have a cup of your coffee..." She smiled and he poured her a cup.

Joey skipped into the room, hair dry and pulled away from her face in clips. "Good morning, Mrs. Witter."

"Good morning, dear. Did you sleep all right?"

"Oh, very well, thank you. The bed was very comfortable. Thank you so much for letting me come and stay with you." Pacey dropped their breakfast onto two plates and served her, pouring them each another cup of coffee. Mrs. Witter was already washing the frying pan by the time he sat down.

The woman was getting anal in her old age, he thought.

"So, Witter, what do you have planned for us today?" Joey said, smiling.

"I don't know, I figured we could wing it. There's a lot of stuff here that I haven't seen myself yet, so I thought we might go complete sight-seeing, like tourists. Sound good? But I gotta still get dressed..." It was her turn to look at him appraisingly, eyes travelling over his bare shoulders.

"Yes, I guess you do. But I like the plan, sounds great."

"Good."

They ate the rest of their meal chatting amiably about nothing in particular. Then, she followed him into his bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed as he dressed quickly and threw some wax in his hair. As they exited the house, she took his hand into hers.

"This is nice, Pacey... Us, in another part of the world, hanging out."

He agreed.

* * *

The day moved quickly, Pacey and Joey drove around the outskirts of Roswell, only having to pull over and check the map a few times. He hadn't been lying about not having seen most of the sights around this town. And it was nice to have someone to both show them to and share them with.

They both were amazed by the beauty of the desert. Mid-afternoon, Pacey pulled off the road and drove down to the reservoir that Isabel had taken him to after his first day of school.

When he stopped the engine, Joey leaped from the Jeep and ran to the embankment. "Oh, my god! Pacey! Is this man-made? It's unreal..." He joined her at the water's edge.

"I know... The colors are just unreal, aren't they?" Ice blue water reflected the amber and tan monolith mesas and white clouds above them. Isabel had said something about it being like no place else on the planet, and he had to agree. He'd certainly never seen anything like it.

"Can we swim in it?" She moved closer to the edge and took off her sandals, sliding her feet into the cool, crystal water. "Man, it's so clear..."

"I didn't see any signs, I don't see why not?" He looked around them, still seeing nothing. And no one around for miles, it seemed. But what else was new, they'd hardly seen other cars around them once they got far enough out of town. "What were you planning on swimming in, my dear?"

"Don't get your hopes up too high, Pacey... my underwear and this tank top will do just fine. And please tell me you have something on under those shorts..." Her loud cackle of laughter echoed off the mesas as she pulled off her shorts and slid into the clear water, diving underneath.

He followed in seconds later wearing nothing but a pair of light blue boxer shorts. Neither of them were going to fare very well when their little swim was over and it was time to dry off. Light colored cotton never did much to hide anything, especially when it was wet.

Joey dove under, he feet kicking water into his face, he was about to follow her under when she pulled hard on his legs, dragging him under with her. He pushed her sharply away and dove deeper, trying to pull the same trick on her. It didn't work, she was far too fast for him. Having that creek behind her house did wonders for her swimming.

She swam circles around him and taunted him mercilessly. Their laughter filled the swimming hole.

When she had tired him out to the point of hardly being able to breathe, he pulled himself from the water and laid face down on the rock shore, his skin drying in the warmth of the sun. She swam around some more then joined him, laying beside him.

"So what's next? Where to, tour guide?" Her golden skin shimmered in the sunlight and he could see directly through her yellow panties.

His tongue inched over his lips, he could hardly help staring at her.

"Huh?" Whatever she had said had gone in one ear and directly out the preoccupied other.

"I asked what you had planned for us next... It's still early, only two o'clock." She rolled over onto her stomach, thank the lord.

"Well, I figured we'd dry off for a while and then I promised some..." he hesitated hopefully inperceptibly, "friends I'd meet them down at this cafe in town. If that sounds okay?" He cringed inwardly, not looking forward to this meeting between Joey and Maria. He didn't know how to pose this to either of them. Not that he had any clue what _this_ was.

"Sounds great, I can't wait to meet your new friends. Tell me about them..." Her eyes closed halfway and she smoothed her wet hair off of her face and into a knot.

"Well, I don't know them all that well yet, but I can give you the Reader's Digest abridged versions."

"Shoot." He watched the cotton dry in patches.

"Well, let's see... First off, there's Alex, he's probably the person I've gotten to know the most. He's a damn nice guy, really friendly, a bit of a computer geek and he's got the most ridiculous crush on this chick Isabel Evans."

"Is that the girl who you went out on a date with?" There was no flinch in her voice whatsoever, and no tell tale signs of anything on her face. Damn her.

"Kinda, but it never really got that far, we hung out here one afternoon and then I found out that Alex was head over heels for her so I backed off. Besides, we really didn't hit it off so well."

"Why not? What's wrong with her?" Joey squinted at him through her long, black lashes.

"Nothing, I mean she's super-hot, actually. But she and her brother are both kinda odd. There's just something off about them. Besides, Alex is deep into her, and he's my first friend here, the last thing I want to do is step on him this early in the game, you know? And she's kinda a bitch, you should see how she leads him on." Pacey rolled onto his back, the sun wasn't going to dry him if he pretended that his front didn't exist.

"All right, tell me more." Joey sat up and shook out her hair. Pacey tried not to stare at her, her nipples stood out in high relief, fighting against the tight, red fabric. _Jesus H. Christ, don't get a fucking hard-on, you tool._

"Okay, who's next? Oh, Max and Liz... Max is Isabel's brother and Liz is his girlfriend. They're both retardly into science and have these disconcertingly soft, calm voices. I think they're due to spontaneously and simultaneously combust any minute now." He stopped to laugh, seeing that scene in his mind. Which was good, since it took his mind off of Joey and those damn nipples.

"Actually, they're both all right, but all of them have this untouchable vibe going on. I mean, they're all nice enough, except Michael Guerin -- he's a complete prick, but I always feel like I've missed part of the conversation. You know what I mean?" He looked back over at her and she nodded her head.

"And Michael Guerin is?" She moved to lay on her side, her arm accidentally brushing his. His hair stood up on end and he moved away slowly. At this moment, any contact was too much contact. Damnit, she just got off the plane yesterday and it wasn't like it had been ages since he'd been laid.

But this wasn't laid, this was Joey Potter.

"He's nobody, just this asshole who has something out for me. Doesn't even make any sense, since it started before--" He cut himself off and it was obvious. Joey's attention was peaked.

"Before..." She goaded.

"Um, before I started kinda seeing his ex-girlfriend." He made a small face at her, embarrassed about the omission and still wishing that he'd kept it out. "I'm sorry, Jo, I should have told you about her earlier, it's just that -- it's really not that big of a deal." The hole he was digging seemed to get bigger with every word, but damn, his foot tasted good in there.

"Pacey! Why didn't you tell me you had a girlfriend? I think it's great!" She seemed honestly happy and he didn't know what to do with that at all.

"She's not really my girlfriend. I mean she's a girl and she's my friend and we've been fooling around a bit, but... I don't think she's my girlfriend. It's just not serious like that." He didn't even really know why he was explaining himself, it was just that... he had no clue.

"So do I get to meet her, too?" She rolled even closer to him, her smile widening on her face.

Why was it that no matter what she said, he was more confused than he had ever been before? Pacey scratched at his almost dry hair and let out a long sigh. "Yeah, she works at The Crashdown." He was beginning to dread this meeting even more than he had already been, and it had nothing to do with either girl in particular; he was worried about himself.

"Yay!" She poked him in the ribs and stood up, walking over to the pile of their clothes at the edge of the reservoir. "Panties dry yet, Pacey?" She said flirtatiously, he could tell she knew full well everything he was thinking. The bitch.

He stood and smiled genuinely, joining her at the pile of garments. "You're such a bitch."

"Don't give me that, you love it when I flirt viciously with you, Pacey." She stood so close that he could feel the heat radiate off her body, finally near dry. "Besides, you're the one who's so nervous about this _girlfriend_ of yours..." Her voice lowered and she inched even closer, her nipples just brushing his chest. "Did you think I would be jealous?" She said in a breathy whisper.

He could feel the blush spread across his cheeks. Moving backwards, he lifted his shorts off the rock and began to pull them on, practically tripping himself to the ground. Joey giggled.

He was even more embarrassed than ever. Now, not only did he have all these feelings for one of his best friends in the world, but he'd wrongly presumed that she had the same type of feelings for him, and to top it off, he was going to have to fake that nothing was wrong in front of Maria. And there was tons wrong. He shook his head walking back to the Jeep.

"Aw, Pacey... I was just teasing you." Joey leaned over the driver's side and nuzzled his neck with her cheek. "Truth is, I am kinda bummed that you're seeing this girl, even if it isn't serious like you say. But, I didn't come all the way out here to test the boundaries of our relationship. I came out here to see you. Anything else would have just been a byproduct, and a bonus." She smiled brightly and kissed him on the cheek, tossing her sandals into the backseat.

* * *

They pulled up to the curb and he set the Jeep into park.

There it is, the damned Crashdown Cafe, site of what would probably be the most uncomfortable hour plus he'd had in a while. The slick Pacey Witter that these people had met had his tail deep between his legs.

But it was still early-ish. They'd be able to grab a soda before anyone even got here.

Pacey led Joey to a booth and they slid in across from each other. It was better that way, if they'd been even ten minutes later he might have to sit next to her and talk to Maria at the same time and there was no way he would be able to stop thinking about Joey's skin touching his.

And Maria would be able to tell.

Ugh. This was just plain awful. The thing was, he didn't even think for a second about it before he saw Joey standing on the edge of that damn curb. He mentally damned himself repeatedly. Then, one right after another, as if cued from off-set, they entered and waved at him, joining he and Joey at the table.

Alex pulled over a smaller table and added it to the end of the booth sitting beside Isabel who slid in next to Joey and introduced herself. Max and Liz on his side. Maria winked and walked straight to the back to get changed.

Michael Guerin followed behind her, eyes shifted and angry. But, what else was new?

The introductions went around the table all friendly like. Everything was normal. Pacey was sweating like a bitch.

Cool arms rounded his neck from behind and he smelled the familiar scent of Maria's perfumed oils. She kissed him on the cheek, bit the lobe of his ear and whispered.

"So, this must be her... Pretty..." He knew she was being a bit of an actress, and he could hardly help but play along. Just a little bit.

He turned into her arms slightly, the volume of his voice hardly more than a breath of air. "Yup. Great rack, too..." Then turning back to the table, all of whom had watched the little display with amusement. "Maria Deluca, Joey Potter."

Joey's mouth stretched into a wide smile. "It's a pleasure, Pacey's been telling me all about you." That bitch. She really knew how to make him feel like a tool.

"Oh, really?" Maria looked down at him, he could feel his ears burning and the flush rising over his throat. "And what has he been saying?" She laughed and rounded the front of the table, order pad poised at ready.

"I shouldn't say, really." Joey winked, laying it on as thick as Maria had, as thick as he'd ever seen it. "Well, seeing as your ready, I'll have a chocolate milk shake and an order of fries, please."

The rest of the table ordered and Pacey just stared with his mouth hanging open until it was his turn. When she got around the table to him, he was only thinking about Joey's fucking foot playing at his ankle. That bitch.

"Hello?" Maria snapped her finger in front of his eyes. "Earth to Pacey... Come in..."

Shit. "Oh, sorry... Ummmm... A coke. Yeah."

Alex let out a guffaw. "All that thought for a coke? Nice..."

He ignored the conversation around him and allowed Joey to tell them all about herself, or as much as she wanted to tell them, that is. He was having a hard time thinking at all. This was all too much for him all at once. And it was stupid. If Joey wasn't even interested, he didn't know what he was thinking getting all wrapped up in making his own drama.

He should go check in with Maria, that's what he should do.

He excused himself as Maria walked towards the back, he caught up to her and grabbed at her wrist. "Hey."

"Hey yourself... What are you all wrapped up in today? Is it that hot, little number sitting across the table from you?" She nodded over at the table where Alex was paying far too much attention to Joey, much to Isabel's chagrin. Pacey felt a pang of protective jealously and let it slide down the back of his throat like ice.

"Maybe it's this hot, little number? You know how I feel about green polyester and that headband of yours." He slid his arm around her waist, glancing quickly over at the table. No one paid him any mind. No one at all.

She pulled him through the kitchen door and backed him up against a locker hard. Pacey's hands threaded through her hair and down her back as she plundered his mouth, her leg sliding up between his. Strangely, he found he was liking it rough. He couldn't help it. And there was something sexy about knowing that an hour earlier he'd been imagining scenarios like this with Joey, and now she was less than 30 feet away behind that door.

His hand traveled up her thigh and he remembered where he was.

Not that he had to remember for himself, he had Guerin to help that along just fine. Michael cleared his throat with a loud hack. When they parted, Maria smoothed down the front of her uniform and Michael stood between them and the door.

"You think you want to feed your customers anytime soon?" He had a smirk on his face. Maria walked towards him, ready to attack. Pacey watched his lips curl, slowly, and he distinctly heard Michael whisper. "Fucking whore."

Maria turned and slapped him in one easy motion, leaving his face expressionless. Then she walked directly out of the kitchen without looking back.

Pacey's mouth fell open. He backed Guerin into the kitchen, his chest puffed out and his chin up defiantly, challenging him. There was a sharp noise as his back hit the deep fryer.

"You know, Guerin. I've had more than enough of your bullshit. I don't know what your fucking problem is, but do yourself a favor and stay the hell away from me." Pacey inched closer, pinning Michael against the steel. "You're a miserable, little cocksucker, you jealous bitch."

Michael didn't say a word, his pupils pinning and muscles tense. Pacey knew they'd be a hard match, and he'd promised himself that he wouldn't let this piece of shit get under his skin. But he did.

They stood, challenging one another silently, their bodies closed in on each other's and the heat from the kitchen making them sweat. Finally, Pacey backed away, and with a swift move, threw his hand to Michael's throat and gripped his fingers.

"No more, Guerin." His words were slow and Michael made no move to counter-attack. He released his hand slowly and felt a blow toss him across the small kitchen. Pacey never saw him move.

"I told you to keep your strength up, Witter."

And that was it. No other words. Pacey got back to his feet and back out of the kitchen, staring down Michael the whole time. Their eyes didn't leave each other, the challenge still in the air between them. This wasn't the time or place for any of this.

Walking back out into the diner, he joined the rest at the table. Maria stood at the edge, her face still pale.

"You okay, Maria?"

"Yeah... I'm fine. Screw him, he's just a baby..."

The curiosity of the table was peaked, especially Joey's.

"What happened back there?" She indicated with her eyes in the direction of the kitchen, looking fleetingly towards Michael. Michael stood in the window, glaring at the entire table. Isabel and Max looked back sympathetically.

"Nothing." Pacey's face was red and the vein in his neck was pulsing uncontrollably. The taste in the back of his throat was threatening to make him vomit. He took a long sip off his coke and felt Maria's hand touch his cheek. "It's all right." He turned back to Jo, "You wanna get out of here?"

"Not really. Pacey, it's not like you to let some guy bother you like this... Just ignore it, we were having a good time."

Just like Joey to force him to be uncomfortable. When had she not? Pacey was getting more and more angry with everyone today. At Alex's refusal to take anything seriously, at Isabel's vindictive smirk, at Max's placid bullshit. All of it. Right now, he just wanted to be left alone. He didn't even know what had happened back there.

"Fine. Maria, will you get me another coke, please."

"Sure, doll." She smiled back at him, the moment still tense.

Pacey tried to shake it off, to forget all about Michael's bullshit and go back to just hanging out and letting everything just roll off his back. Maria wasn't letting him bother her, Joey let nothing bother her at all and chatted amiably with the group around her, and everything, slowly, returned to normal.

But Pacey could feel Michael's eyes burning into the back of his head. And remembered the feel of the blow that sent him backwards.

* * *

* * *

To be continued...

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